"Helmet? I don't need no steenking helmet!"

[TripleR]

Too much Government??You haven't seen anything yet...Keep your powder dry.

When I was working in a "gubmit job, I had this in both my offices prominently displayed:

"When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered." Dorothy Thompson (1893-1961)

 

[Robert_in_NY]

I ride a Harley and wear a helmet, but when I usually take a ride it's on a less traveled country road as they are my fav's. During that type of ride I would love to not be required to wear a helmet. I don't like having the government telling me what to wear what to eat, can I smoke or can I hunt with what kind of firearm. People need to understand this because at sometime or other the government will intervene in one of their freedom of choices. Just take a look at different state laws on helmets, fireworks, firearms, marriage, you get the picture, what's illegal in one state is legal in another. Just my opinion , Too Much Government In Our Life's.
DevilDog

The hunting and what type of firearm issue does need to be controlled, left unchecked we just about killed every animal worth anything on the continent. Its taken over a hundred years to restore some of the species populations and while others are extinct there are a few still making comebacks like the elk and such.

The firearm aspect is touchy, where we live there were hunting instructors pushing for NY to allow rifles for deer season in our zone. The problem is this zone is along lake Erie and has a lot of houses. It also has four major roads running through this narrow zone (State Routes 5, 20 and 39 as well as Interstate 90). Between all the vehicles and all the houses it didn't make sense to allow rifles here which upset a bunch. Its too hard to control where the lead will land after it leaves your barrel and the rifles have such a powerful cartridge it would endanger the welfare of the people living in this zone as well as the motorists. Heck, my grandfather had a bullet go through his bedroom wall and land on his bed from a pistol that was shot 400 yards away, they figured it hit a stone and went over the make shift backstop and over the woods and through his house wall.

The worst part about this area is that there isn't really too many spots a rifle would give you any advantage over a shotgun. The wood lots are all small, the main farm ground is vineyards. The open crop fields are also not overly huge and almost all of these fields border one or two of these major roads. So I did agree with them not allowing rifles down here. What they did decide was to split our zone and allow rifles on the south side of Route 20 which only put Route 39 in rifle area (which is the lesser traveled of the four major roads). Rt 20, 5 and I90 all run along Lake Erie at various distances away from the shore.

Too much goverment is not a good thing but then again having no goverment isn't a good thing either. You will never get everyone to agree with something the goverment does but as long as we keep our elected leaders in check then we should be ok in the long haul which is what a democracy is all about if I remember right from my schooling :laughing:

One thing I would love to see though is where our goverment finally does something good and makes it harder to sue people so that we don't have so many stupid lawsuits. The problem with that is that most of our elected leaders are lawyers so that would cut their own throat:confused2: But it gives us something to talk about still :thumbsup:

 

[John47]

No doubt wearing helmets saves lives, I wouldn't get on a bike without one, the question is how much control do we want the government to have in protecting us from ourselves.

I don't class it as government control over the lives of bikers, more to protect the rest of society from the cost of medical care if a biker acting stupid trying to defy the laws of physics has to be hospitalized for the rest of his life.

Maybe we should say "Look, we don't care if you split your skull in half, BUT, we do demand you take out insurance to cover a lifetime of intensive medical care should you happen to have a row with the concrete at 55mph, so we demand that you insure yourself, or we will confiscate your bike, sell it and give the proceeds to a hospital"

I don't think that's too much to ask for...

 

[Gator6x4]

One of the best responses I have ever heard from anyone on too much Government, Rules, Regulations or Laws was made by a senior politician.

His thoughts were: "That a majority of Americans will do what is right a majority of the time without controls, restraints or prompting. A minority of Americans will not do what is right anytime, regardless of the controls or constraints in place and for those laws are enacted to insure they are held accountable and responsible".

As I get older I tend to agree with him. Some I am afraid have forgotten or never learned we all have rights. Individual rights stop where someone’s else’s rights start.

 

[TripleR]

I don't class it as government control over the lives of bikers, more to protect the rest of society from the cost of medical care if a biker acting stupid trying to defy the laws of physics has to be hospitalized for the rest of his life.

Maybe we should say "Look, we don't care if you split your skull in half, BUT, we do demand you take out insurance to cover a lifetime of intensive medical care should you happen to have a row with the concrete at 55mph, so we demand that you insure yourself, or we will confiscate your bike, sell it and give the proceeds to a hospital"

I don't think that's too much to ask for...

My point is simply that you can apply the same argument of the rest of society paying your medical bills to many things beyond mandating the wearing of a helmet and how far down that road should we allow the government and others take us.

We have mandatory insurance in our state, but many people either cancel it or allow it to run out once they get their vehicle licensed.

My life was saved by a helmet once and either death or serious brain injury another time and a seatbelt once for sure. I am disabled due to an automobile collision in a vehicle before seat belts were in common use; very difficult subjects for me as I can argue both sides of this.

 

[ray66v]

You can't drive a car 2 doors down to the convenient store, without a seat belt, but you can ride a motorcycle all you want, (in Ohio anyway), without a helmet. Now, that is senseless.

The exception to our no helmet necessary law, is riders with a learners permit.

We recently had a local story about a future leader of America who was severely injured when he was ejected from his motorcycle, and thrown over the truck that hit him.

His parents recognized the officer who was there investigating the accident, he had just given their son a ticket, and a sermon, for riding on a learners permit without a helmet, one week before.

They thanked him for saving the boys life.

 

[kempclint]

Why we have to blame any body... we are people who make mistakes. If it is time for us to die then it is our time.. When we blame it to the law enforcer it would just create an issue of disrespect to our law enforcer, though they are times we have to fight for what is justice if these law enforcers have neglect their duty then lets get them in trial. Let the law decide what is right for them. But we will not stop or neglect the safety when we are driving motorbikes. Wearing helmet in a proper way and that helmet must be so tough. JUst be safe and obey rules.

 

[ragkar]

We use to have a helmet law here in Pennsylvania, but they succeeded in writing a repeal on the grounds of persona responsibility. But that attempt was vetoed by the governor because it made the use of both helmets and eye protection voluntary.
I'm a rider and I thought that the governor was right. The lack of a helmet endangers the rider, but the lack of eye protection endangers everyone on or near the road. I've had large insects fly between my windshield and hit my visor right over my eye even faster than I could blink. If that happened without protection, my motorcycle would go out of control.
The law now is optional use for adults and over half the riders use helmets. the only persistent non-users are the macho guys on harleys.

When the guys at the diner start discussing this subject I chip in and suggest that golfers, skiers, hunters and bikers should also be required by law to wear them. And hunters should wear bulletproof vests. And bikers should wear shin guards. And tennis players should wear padding. That's what happens when people try to legislate other peoples safety.

Oh, I always wear a helmet when riding.

 

[beppington]

For those that think helmets should be required, how about an age limit on motorcycle riding ... say 55? Certainly the average 55 year old doesn't have the reaction time of an average 20 - 30 year old.

 

[Skyco]

Whoa there beppington....I'm over 55 and I promise you I can ride better and safer than a huge percentage of youngsters I see on the road, and I don't ride an overweight ill handling cruiser either

And really maybe it is the car drivers who need to stop at 55 since their vehicles have more mass and are much more deadly to others....at least on a bike the vast majority of the time an accident only kills the rider.

Maybe we shouldn't allow any older more experienced airplane pilots either...