Article with helmet poll.... please answer the poll question! NO!!!!!!!!!

OFF THE WIRE
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/today/index.ssf/2010/11/opinion_safety_should_override.html
OPINION: Safety should override personal choice in motorcycle helmet laws.
Thank you for voting!
Yes 65.85%

No 34.15%

From the National Football League to Little League fields, people are coming to grips with the danger of concussions — and doing something about it. The time-honored tradition of “shaking off” a serious head-banging and returning to the game has been debunked by science, experience and tragedy.
So why doesn’t medical evidence weigh as potently in the argument to require the use of motorcycle helmets? In the past decade, many states, including Pennsylvania, have given in to the romantic notion that bare-headed motorcycle riding is a privilege, a decision to be made by the adult rider. New Jersey still mandates helmet use for all riders.
This week the National Transportation Safety Board re-entered this debate, urging states to toughen their helmet laws. Failing that, it will ask Congress to require states to pass mandatory helmet laws under threat of loss of federal transportation funds.
We’ve been down this road before. We know the case for open-air riding without head protection. We understand the appeal.
But we also have an appreciation for the costs involved. A 2008 University of Pittsburgh study found a 32 percent increase in Pennsylvania motorcyclists’ head-injury deaths in the two years after the “adult freedom of choice act” went into effect, along with a 42 percent increase in hospitalizations.
The NTSB reported Tuesday that deaths from motorcycle crashes more than doubled from 1998 to 2008, to almost 5,300 annually. The incidence of fatalities dropped last year, to 4,260, which was attributed to a decrease in traffic overall. Yet the national average was still 12 deaths a day, with a concentration in states with more lenient helmet laws.
It seems unlikely that Congress will reverse itself again on this. In 1967, lawmakers threatened to withhold highway funds for states that didn’t enact helmet requirements. Nine years later, Congress decided to leave the decision to the states.
Yet there’s a big price to be paid for this “freedom,” whether you prefer to call it a states’ rights issue or a matter of individual liberty. Much of the cost to rehabilitate (and bury) injured motorcyclists is passed along to people who don’t ride, whether we like it or not. Taxpayers are dunned for higher medical bills and sometimes death settlements, through higher insurance rates and subsidies for unpaid medical expenses. Many riders are uninsured or rely on Medicare or Medicaid. A 2005 study found the average medical bill for helmetless riders hurt in crashes was $310,000, compared with $71,000 for those wearing helmets.
The NTSB is pushing other measures. It wants states to continue to tighten licensing rules for young drivers, as New Jersey and Pennsylvania have done. It notes the use of booster seats by young children has greatly increased survival rates. And it continues to push for all states to have “primary” seat belt enforcement laws. To which we would add: Ban hand-held phoning and texting while driving, which is still an embarrassing safety gap in Pennsylvania.
Putting on a helmet for a motorcycle ride should be part of this thinking and safety regulation. Isn’t cutting health care costs on the agenda in Washington, D.C., and every state capital? Besides, it’s just common sense.
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