Motorcycle Helmets and Serious Personal Injury or Wrongful Death

         I am always amazed at people I see riding bikes and scooters and motorcycles without helmets. I am even further amazed and how strongly some of these people feel about laws requiring the use of helmets.  A couple years ago, the Indiana legislature was all set to pass a mandatory helmet law.  On the day of the final vote several hundred motorcyclists filled the halls of the state house to voice their opposition to mandatory helmet laws.  I understand smaller government, but I do not understand not wearing a helmet.

In what must be one of the most ironic stories of the year,  Police say a motorcyclist participating in a protest ride against helmet laws died after he flipped over the bike’s handlebars and hit his head on the pavement. 55-year-old Philip A. Contos of Parish, N.Y., was driving a 1983 Harley Davidson with a group of bikers who were protesting helmet laws by not wearing helmets. He hit his brakes and toppled over the handlebars. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. Troopers say Contos would have likely survived if he had been wearing a helmet.  We are saddened for Mr. Contos’ family.  However, this story is a teaching moment.  Helmets prevent more serious injuries.  Helmets are comfortable.  Helmets should be worn at all times.

I often wonder if the same folks who do not want to be told by the government to wear a helmet, have any objection to receiving social security and Medicare for the rest of their lives after a severe brain injury in a motorcycle accident.  After all, for the rest of their lives the Government they did not want telling them what to do, will be telling them what to do for the rest of the lives.