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Saturday, October 16, 2010

FEDS PUSH HELMET LAWS AND MOTORCYCLE-ONLY ROADBLOCKS

OFF THE WIRE
FEDS PUSH HELMET LAWS AND MOTORCYCLE-ONLY ROADBLOCKS
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is seeking applications from law enforcement agencies across the country to conduct federally-funded motorcycle-only roadside checkpoints.

Now mirrored in other states, “Motorcycle-Only Safety Checkpoints” were initiated in New York last year and are set up during large motorcycle rallies or near large biker gathering spots to check not only license, registration and insurance, but also for DOT-compliant helmets and legal exhaust systems. ABATE of New York is working with NY A.I.M. (Aid to Injured Motorcyclists) attorney Mitch Proner on legal actions to halt these discriminatory roadblocks in the Empire State.

But police forces across the country may soon receive public funds to target motorcyclists, though U.S. Reps F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI) and Tom Petri (R-WI) along with several colleagues in Congress have written to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asking him to suspend funding of the federal grants for the NHTSA checkpoint program.

In addition, after learning that NHTSA recently testified to the Senate Committee on Commerce Science and Transportation that “The most important step we could take would be to assure that all riders wear a DOT-compliant helmet,” according to NHTSA Administrator David Strickland, who added “NHTSA will actively work with Congress to promote helmet use," Congressman Sensenbrenner and fellow Congressional lawmakers have also introduced H. Res. 1498 which “supports efforts to retain the ban on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s ability to lobby state legislatures using federal tax dollars and urges NHTSA to focus on crash prevention and rider education.”

The US Defenders have joined with other state and national motorcycle groups in urging riders to contact their Congress members to support H. Res. 1498, and to write DOT & NHTSA to oppose federally-funded motorcycle-only safety checks. “This is one more piece of evidence of the constant profiling attempts targeting our community at large,” said Escondido Paul, National Lt. Commander of the US Defenders, in issuing a nationwide Call To Action through all Confederations of Clubs and coalitions in every state. For further information, consult www.USDefenders.org.