Easing the Helmet Requirement
Missouri’s governor signed into law a bill that will ease the helmet requirements. The new rule is if you’re 26 and have health insurance you don’t have to wear a helmet. The new law will go into effect on August 28.
The National Safety Council and the National Association of the State Motorcycle Safety Administrators’ Policy and Research committee both vehemently opposed the new law.
“The repeal of the all-rider helmet law will have ripple effects across the state of Missouri,” representatives for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety said in a statement. “More riders will choose to leave their helmets at home, resulting in more unhelmeted motorcyclist fatalities and injuries.”
The bill the governor signed also held many other provisions, including special license plates, funding for the state’s Hyperloop testing track project, vehicle registration, licensing, Real I.D., and highways named for fallen law enforcement officers, according to The Missouri Times.
I’m all for people making their own choices, but it seems to me that the opposition to this law is correct. It will result in more injuries and fatalities. The simple fact of the matter is that helmets save lives. So, even if your state doesn’t require one, you should wear one every single time you toss a leg over your bike.
Just look at the burned out fatsos supporting the bill. They all look like they are on death’s doorstep. So what do they care if someone in a lapse of judgement gets his brain destroyed?
Gosh Tom why judge like that? Right or wrong there no reason for that kind of comment. If we ever meet, which I doubt, but if ever, wear a helmet if you are going to talk like that face to face. Just sayin’
You are just ignorant and mean spirited.
That helmet is wearing *you* for protection.
I have been riding and racing motorcycles since I was about 12 years old. It’s an inherently dangerous activity but it’s also something I love to do. However if you choose to ride without a helmet you are only using your head to keep your ears apart!
I’m stealing that last line!
That’s the point though, choice. You shouldn’t have to legislate individual responsibility. Especially when it doesn’t adversely impact anyone but the rider. Government should stay out of some things. How are cigarettes legal but we force helmets? It’s not about safety. It’s about individual responsibility and $$$$
This is a bullshit argument, especially because motorcycle deaths can cost the community plenty of money when they happen. Sometimes you do have to legislate individual responsibility because people refuse to voluntarily do the right thing. You might equate that to the start of a slippery slope, but I’d argue that it’s a long ways off of that.
By the way, for your cigarette argument to be aligned, the government would need to be taxing riders that don’t wear helmets in the same way that cigarettes are taxes to help partially offset their economic cost.
Should ski diving be illegal, should bungee jumping be illegal, people should have the right to make their own choices.
Terrible comparisons mate. You’re making the choice to get on the bike. It comes with the requirement of having to wear a helmet. Easy choice to make.
Sky divers and bungee jumpers always wear helmets! I wonder why?!
Okay.. but having a health insurance and being 26 years of won’t save you from accidents.
No, but a helmet greatly increases my odds of surviving one.
I would never legislate any self-protective activity. Make up your own mind. However, I would also never sign up the “community” to pay for your health benefits. Both things are wrong!
A young lady, CBS reporter, found out the hard way why you wear a helmet the other day in Brooklyn. 26 years old. Shame.
We will have to agree to disagree.
Car seat belts.
Drops microphone.
“…doesn’t impact anyone but the rider!!!” Just like the costs of hurricane and flood damage don’t effect everyone’s house insurance premium…? Of course it affects us. The motorcycle insurance premium for everyone will go up to cover the health care costs of those injured without a helmet. The only chance of it not affecting the rest of us is if those not waring helmets are found dead at the scene, which sadly is often the case. On the plus side Missouri is likely to become a greater organ donor state as a result of this law. Hospitals don’t call them “donorcycles” for nothing.
Wear one, Don’t wear one. Make your own decision. When government makes the decision for you, it’s just more oversight and them telling you that you’re a stupid SOB and you shouldn’t decide how to live your life.
The reason can make this comment IS because I was wearing a very good helmet . I had a woman turn left in front of me, according to the witnesses I flew like superman across the intersection. Helmet saved my head and most importantly my brain. Wanna gamble with your life? Don’t wear one. And no you don’t get hurt by the Helmet.
Been riding over fifty years, on and off road and in competition, survived high speed slides and center punches from pick up and survived every time wearing a helmet, boots and gloves !
It’s the very least you can do to protect yourself !
americans get dumber and dumber every day.
this is not about choice, this is about forcing the state to pay for your rotting corpse after you are brain dead for not knowing how to ride your motorsickle. grow the fuck up and take some responsibility for yourself. conservatives and other dopes always talk about personal responsibility well here it is.
and yes I can talk about this as a motorcyclist since the 70’s , go ahead, bring on the crybabies.
Insurance companies wont be looking to pickup the cost for stupidity. They will likely exclude cover if you fail to act in a responsible way and fail to protect yourself. It is an inherently dangerous activity common sense to protect yourself. I would never ride without a helmet even if the choice was there.
I have been riding motorcycles since 1969 in California. Since that time. In 1993 California enacted mandatory helmet laws be in effect. NOT for motorcycle riders! But for the rise in head injuries of Children of 40%! I wore a Helmet prior to the law! I worked in both ER as a Nurse. And as a Paramedic-Fireman for over 25 years. My sum total of head injuries was ONE out hundreds of traffic fatalities! Does this law make sense? AGAIN. We do not NEED government telling us what is BAD for us!? Common sense tells anyone with a cognizant brain. That wearing a helmet for protection is the best option available! If you choose not to wear a helmet. Then your fate will be determined by an unknown event that is most assuredly has the odds forced against you!
Darwin in action.
Only the very dumb dont see the sense of a helmet.
I think one of the key elements to the law is the phrase “and have health insurance”. Seems to me that puts the burden on the insurance industry, and in turn on all of our insurance rates. I think you will see insurance companies add disclaimers to their policies that basically say “no helmet, no coverage”.
In the end… the government of Missouri gets to pander to their dimwitted base, the insurance companies get to increase rates or absolve themselves of liability, and the rider gets to pound their chest and say I won the right to not wear a helmet.
Everyone is happy… or not.
Health Insurance is only useful if you SURVIVE the crash:)
Good point Micky! 🙂
Coming soon:
Rising insurance costs for Missouri m/c owners age 26+
I can’t help but wonder just how many of you pro helmet folks are for the required use of seat belts when in a car or the required use of a condom when you have sex ? Clearly we are talking about choice vs: requirement. Here in Maine the saying is let those who ride decide !
Seat belts should be required. Condoms isn’t a fair comparison and you know it.
Condom argument is ridiculous. How dumb is the anti-helmet crowd?
Majority of death toll during motorcycle rides comes from head injuries. No further comment.
30 years, helmet free. Still alive. Some people ride motorcycles and some people RIDE motorcycles. Feet between the mirrors; side saddle, one handed speed shifting, while texting, standing on the seat at 90mph, tank wheelies, throwing sparks from steel plated shoe soles skiing beside their bike…you can tell them by the twinkle in their eyes, the laughter that starts deep in their sole, and their mask less smiles. “Fear not. Be of good courage.” Or simply get your chicken shit, coward ass out of the way before your dumb ass causes an accident.