Motorcycle helmet laws have weakened nationwide since 1975, when the federal government stopped withholding highway money from states without such regulations. Only 20 states now have laws that require all riders to wear helmets.
Motorcycle Helmet Laws
Riding down the open road on a motorcycle hair blowing in the wind, feeling free from all the problems of the world, this is how some riders feel riding should be, but then out of nowhere a car pulls out in front of the rider and having nowhere to go, the bike crashes into the car. The motorcycle rider is thrown from his bike and impacts the road. Later, during the autopsy, the medical examiner determines that this rider’s life could have been spared if they had only been wearing a safety helmet; this is just one case of hundreds of crash fatalities that could have been prevented. A federal law should be passed requiring all motorcycle riders to wear helmets because they save Americans millions of dollars in health costs, reduce the amount of and severity of crash-related head injuries, and lowers the percentage of motorcycle deaths.
First off, the vast number of motorcycle crashes has been on the rise since the weakening of mandated helmet laws between 1976 and 1978 to restrict only to younger people in twenty states. According to the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety (IIHS),The increase of motorcycle crashes resulting in death has nearly doubled since it low in 1997 of 2,116 to 4,553 2005(Frank 1). Yes, the number of motorcycle riders has increased in this time but the number of crashes has still risen (“Q&A’s” 1). Andreas Muller says in her Journal that” Nationwide, at least $61 million could be saved annually if all motorcyclists were to use helmets.”(Mullar 585). With all this and a survey conducted by the NHTSA evaluated the weakened Florida universal helmet law’s impact in 2000 to exclude riders 21 and older who have at least $10,000 of medical insurance coverage., And they found a “huge increase in...