OFF THE WIRE
http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/news/local/motorcycle-safety-helmet-laws
**Motorcycle safety: Helmet laws*
Jessica Hayes TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Joe
Snyder, now 71, has been riding motorcycles since he was 18-years-old.
Even though Indiana doesn't require helmets, Joe
always wears his.
"In a motorcycle accident, you're going forward,
boom, there goes your chin," Snyder said. "It knocks your head down and the next
thing's the top of your head. Those are very vital parts. You don't want the top
of your head crushed."
The Wabash Valley's seen its share of motorcycle
accidents, like Thursday at 13th and Ohio Streets in Terre Haute. The driver of
the motorcycle was airlifted to Indianapolis, a driver who was not wearing a
helmet.
One of the folks who cleaned up this accident
said helmets would help.
"Yesterday I saw what was left of a motorcycle,"
Tom Gonzales of Mike's Towing said. "It hit a telephone pole, ended up in a tree
and some bushes on the sidewalk and just pieces of bike everywhere."
Nineteen states and DC require helmets for all
riders.
Two states, including Illinois, have no helmet
laws.
And the rest, like Indiana, have limited laws,
meaning licensed drivers don't need helmets.
A law unlikely to change for something that may
or may not turn into lives saved.
"I will always wear a helmet, always have,"
Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels said. "The laws about whether it does or doesn't
reduce fatalities and injuries are very ambiguous. It is not entirely clear that
these laws have the result that they hope to have."
In 2008, nearly 5,300 motorcycle fatalities were
reported nationwide, more than double the number a decade earlier.
