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Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Daytona Beach - Agency calls for mandatory helmets; bikers prefer choice...

OFF THE WIRE
DAYTONA BEACH FLORIDA
Bike Week, the yearly celebration of leather-clad camaraderie on motorcycles, has finished its first weekend, and since the event's first day, there have been no deaths.
With the roar of straight pipes and countless Welcome Bikers banners flapping in front of the restaurants and bars on U.S. 1, a federal agency is seeking to expand nationally the law to regulate helmet use.
The National Transportation Safety Board has been calling for all states to enact mandatory helmet laws.
According to the board, the number of motorcycle deaths has risen while other highway deaths have fallen. Helmets, the agency says, reduce fatalities.
Florida, which is among states that require helmets only for the youngest of riders and those who don't carry insurance, changed its law in 2000 to end the mandatory helmet requirement. While deaths went from 164 statewide in 1999 to more than 400 in 2009, many people who ride motorcycles said they'd like to keep the right to decide for themselves.
Ask a biker about helmets, and you'll generally get the thumbs down.
"I don't like helmets," said Leo Grib, who owns Brassworks, an antique store and metal polishing business on Ridgewood Avenue in Holly Hill. "I just feel awkward wearing one."
In more than 20 years riding motorcycles, Grib said he has crashed but avoided serious injury. He does not agree with a law regulating helmet use. "It should be an individual choice," he said
There is nothing pending in the state Legislature that would change that. The debate heated up last year, when the NTSB began calling for helmet laws. This week, an estimated 500,000 people are expected to roll into the area for Bike Week, which runs through Sunday. A study conducted by the Florida Motorcycle Safety Coalition found motorists are at fault in 60 percent of crashes when four-wheel vehicles and motorcycles collide.
A Daytona Beach News-Journal study in 2006 -- the deadliest Bike Week for motorcycle-related crashes -- found drivers of six cars or trucks were at fault in 16 fatal wrecks during the special event. The results also found 14 of the bikers killed in crashes that year had not been drinking enough to be considered legally too drunk to drive. Two had, according to autopsy records.
The American Automobile Association on Wednesday released survey results in which 82 percent of bikers said they "always wear a helmet," although informal local surveys have found about half of riders wear helmets during Bike Week.
"Riders should always wear a helmet," said Michele Harris, director of traffic safety culture for AAA. "Be as visible as possible and never ride after alcohol consumption."
At the TJ Fish and Chicken restaurant in Holly Hill, three men took a break from riding their Harley-Davidson motorcycles. One of them, Jon Silverman, 23, of Maryland acknowledged he may have been seriously injured if he wasn't wearing a helmet when he crashed his motorcycle last year.
But as soon as Silverman got to town this week, he says he couldn't wait to put his helmet away. His home state, he explained, requires all motorcycle riders to wear helmets.
"I spend most of the year riding with a helmet," Silverman said, "so when I get down here, I take full advantage of not wearing one."
Like most, a national helmet law, if passed, wouldn't keep him from riding.
"Let the rider decide," he said.
Riders and anti-helmet law advocates insist that statistics can be twisted either way. Silverman said he thinks many people who die in crashes "would have died with or without a helmet."
Last year, seven people died during Bike Week in Volusia County, the same number as the year before. That's significantly lower than the record 26 reported fatalities during Bike Week in 2006.
"Deaths have dropped 24 percent," said Doc Henbach, state president and lobbyist for the ABATE of Florida. "Everybody's pretty happy about that, except the newspapers."
The group is pushing for legislation that would increase fines for motorists who hit motorcycles, bicycles or pedestrians.
Henbach, for one, would rather die than be left "a vegetable" as the result of a motorcycle crash, which could require hundreds of thousands for medical care.
"I'd rather die, its as simple as that," he said. "I don't want to be a burden on my family."
http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/local/east-volusia/2011/03/07/agency-calls-for-mandatory-helmets-bikers-prefer-choice.html