Man protesting motorcycle helmet laws dies...because he wasn't wearing a helmet

[93Devil]

As someone who visits Maine and New Hampshire often, the sight of motorcyclists pulling over at, or just after. crossing the border of those states to take their helmets off has always mystified me.

It's just so far beyond stupid that it defies words.

Helmet or no helmet, riding a motorcycle is not the wisest thing to do.

God bless people who do, but you will never see me on one.

 

[outofplace]

My brother rides. He had to give it up for a few years for health reasons, but I recently found out he had started again. I was going to send the story I did with pictures from a fatal motorcycle accident scene, but I realized it was pointless. He has seen much worse as an EMT.

He insists that any accident that would kill him without a helmet would most likely kill or paralyze him anyway. He's even more stubborn than I am, so you can imagine how productive those conversations are. Stories like these get me pissed off at him all over again (good timing for it, too, since he's here visiting this week).

 

[zagoshe]

My brother rides. He had to give it up for a few years for health reasons, but I recently found out he had started again. I was going to send the story I did with pictures from a fatal motorcycle accident scene, but I realized it was pointless. He has seen much worse as an EMT.

He insists that any accident that would kill him without a helmet would most likely kill or paralyze him anyway. He's even more stubborn than I am, so you can imagine how productive those conversations are. Stories like these get me pissed off at him all over again (good timing for it, too, since he's here visiting this week).

Well if you ride his motorcycle, no need to wear a helmet because there is nothing to protect....

 

[zagoshe]

As someone who visits Maine and New Hampshire often, the sight of motorcyclists pulling over at, or just after. crossing the border of those states to take their helmets off has always mystified me.

It's just so far beyond stupid that it defies words.

You may think it is stupid but guess what - in this country we have the right to be stupid.

And just like the decision to wear a seat belt, the decision to wear a helmet is each individual's decision to make - not some whiny ass political action group or politician.

 

[Oz]

My brother rides. He had to give it up for a few years for health reasons, but I recently found out he had started again. I was going to send the story I did with pictures from a fatal motorcycle accident scene, but I realized it was pointless. He has seen much worse as an EMT.

He insists that any accident that would kill him without a helmet would most likely kill or paralyze him anyway. He's even more stubborn than I am, so you can imagine how productive those conversations are. Stories like these get me pissed off at him all over again (good timing for it, too, since he's here visiting this week).

Well if you ride his motorcycle, no need to wear a helmet because there is nothing to protect....

 

[Beef03]

Was Ben Roethlisberger among those protesting?

My dad's a minister, and has said numerous times he would disown me if I bought a motorcycle. He's buried too many who have been in motorcycle accidents.

The city closest to my hometown is an oil city. I also worked at the paper there. It is a city where there are too many young people with too much money and too much time on their hands. This leads to two things there, a huge drug trade, and far too many idiots on crotch rockets. They like to do wheelies all the way down the main drag, in and out of heavy oil traffic and some of the worst drivers in the country. This one evening during a heavy rainstorm, about a block from where I lived -- I was home at the time -- this one guy in his early 20s is out forking around on his crotch rocket in front of his house in a residential area doing different tricks, no helmet of course. At one point he calls out his younger brother and girlfriend to watch him do trick. He winds up losing control and braining himself on a trailer hitch of a truck. I have no sympathy for these retards. Your brains on the pavement or a trailer hitch is not a cool look.

 

[Shoeless Joe]

It's those 20-somethings forking around on crotch rockets where most of your statistics come from. The overwhelming majority of your accidents involve some kind of cocktail of youth, speed and stupidity.

The biggest danger to older guys on cruisers riding back-and-forth to work and down isolated roads is the stupid cagers that are too busy talking on their phone or too cool to be bothered to pay attention. Ride defensively.

I ride almost daily. If you don't, that's your business. I wear a helmet 100 percent of the time. (I wear a helmet 100 percent of the time when I'm on my bicycle, too). Accidents can happen any time, any place. When you hear about someone falling and dying in their shower do you avoid bathing because you're scared you'll get injured?

 

[outofplace]

My brother rides. He had to give it up for a few years for health reasons, but I recently found out he had started again. I was going to send the story I did with pictures from a fatal motorcycle accident scene, but I realized it was pointless. He has seen much worse as an EMT.

He insists that any accident that would kill him without a helmet would most likely kill or paralyze him anyway. He's even more stubborn than I am, so you can imagine how productive those conversations are. Stories like these get me pissed off at him all over again (good timing for it, too, since he's here visiting this week).

Well if you ride his motorcycle, no need to wear a helmet because there is nothing to protect....

 

[outofplace]

As someone who visits Maine and New Hampshire often, the sight of motorcyclists pulling over at, or just after. crossing the border of those states to take their helmets off has always mystified me.

It's just so far beyond stupid that it defies words.

You may think it is stupid but guess what - in this country we have the right to be stupid.

And just like the decision to wear a seat belt, the decision to wear a helmet is each individual's decision to make - not some whiny ass political action group or politician.

Except when those pesky laws say otherwise. (cue Zag with steam shooting out of his ears).

 

[LongTimeListener]

I'm all for people riding without a helmet -- without them we would never get organs for the people who actually value life and need a little help with the heart or lungs. It's a public service, really.

 

[MacDaddy]

It's those 20-somethings forking around on crotch rockets where most of your statistics come from. The overwhelming majority of your accidents involve some kind of cocktail of youth, speed and stupidity.

The biggest danger to older guys on cruisers riding back-and-forth to work and down isolated roads is the stupid cagers that are too busy talking on their phone or too cool to be bothered to pay attention. Ride defensively.

I ride almost daily. If you don't, that's your business. I wear a helmet 100 percent of the time. (I wear a helmet 100 percent of the time when I'm on my bicycle, too). Accidents can happen any time, any place. When you hear about someone falling and dying in their shower do you avoid bathing because you're scared you'll get injured?

Roughly half of motorcycle fatalities are single-vehicle accidents — the aforementioned dumbasses, failing to negotiate a curve, etc. A good chunk of accidents involve riders without motorcycle licenses or any training, and another good chunk involve riders who are legally drunk. So what Shoeless Joe describes sounds like a stereotype, but it's a pretty accurate one.

I'm not going to argue that motorcycling is absolutely safe, but it's a lot safer than people make it out to be.

 

[Dyno]

I'm all for people riding without a helmet -- without them we would never get organs for the people who actually value life and need a little help with the heart or lungs. It's a public service, really.

I know that in the transplant community motorcycles are sometimes referred to as "donorcycles."