Federal push may mean revisiting helmet law in PA

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Federal push could mean Pennsylvania will revisit helmet law for motorcyclists Published: Friday, November 19, 2010, 12:00 AM Updated: Friday, November 19, 2010, 12:05 AM KARI ANDREN, The Patriot-News Follow Share this story Story tools
View full sizeJENNY KANE, The Patriot-NewsMike Bowers, the owner of Black Dog Motorcycles in Wormleysburg, said he chooses to wear a helmet, even if it somewhat restricts his vision and hearing. He said plenty of other riders wear them, too. 0 Share 6 Comments Motorcycling is inherently risky, Susan Spittle says.
But if you ride, you obviously feel that the enjoyment of riding offsets the risks, said Spittle, a York resident and a member of the Twin Rose Lady Riders, a midstate club. She said that she chooses to wear a helmet but that it shouldn’t be something the government mandates.
“Why should government have the right to impose a personal standard of conduct?” Spittle said. “How each rider chooses to deal with all of the risks of riding should be an individual responsibility.”
Nonetheless, federal safety officials are urging states to require motorcycle riders to wear helmets, citing a surge in fatalities since the late 1990s. And that could mean Pennsylvania will revisit the issue next year.
If a helmet law debate does resurface in Pennsylvania, the state Capitol could be the battleground again.
“We’d be there with bells on,” said Charles Umbenhauer, lobbyist for the Pennsylvania chapter of Alliance of Bikers Aimed Toward Education. ABATE led the repeal of the helmet law seven years ago, and Umbenhauer said he doesn’t foresee a change in the near future.
“There’s always going to be somebody who thinks we ought to have to wear helmets,” Umbenhauer said. “We’re not against wearing helmets. We’re against them being mandated.”
Gov. Ed Rendell and state lawmakers repealed Pennsylvania’s helmet law in 2003 for adult riders. A rider over age 21 with two or more years of experience riding or who passes a safety course doesn’t have to wear a helmet.
Motorcycle deaths have increased in the last decade even as other traffic fatalities have declined, the National Transportation Safety Board points out, and head injuries are the leading cause.
More than 200 people were killed in motorcycle crashes in Pennsylvania last year, a 52 percent increase since 2002, the last full year before the repeal of the helmet law. But there are nearly 80,000 more riders in Pennsylvania in the last eight years.
Medical professionals and safety officials point to injury and death statistics as evidence that riders who wear helmets are more likely to survive crashes.
But whether this latest push in a decades-long battle will drive a change in Pennsylvania remains to be seen. The safety board can’t force states to enact tougher helmet laws or offer money as an incentive.
Deborah Hersman, the safety board’s chairwoman, promised to keep pressure on states and, if that doesn’t work, to seek help from Congress or the Obama administration.
Gov.-elect Tom Corbett has said that he’s not interested in reinstating the law.
State Rep. Dan Frankel, D-Allegheny County, has made it his mission to put the law back on the books.
Frankel said he’s unsure the measure would make it very far given the balance of power next year : All three branches of state government will be controlled by Republicans.
But he plans to try.
“Let’s at least open it up to the light of day and have information about what we did and what those consequences were and what the repercussions will be for the state budget, the cost of health care in our state and in our country,” Frankel said.
Twenty states require that motorcycle riders wear helmets, the safety board said. Most states have limited helmet requirements.
Nearly all states had universal helmet laws when they were necessary to receive full federal highway funding. But in the mid-1990s, Congress repealed the requirement, leaving the decision up to states.
“People have to get outraged about this safety issue that is causing so many deaths needlessly,” NTSB Vice Chairman Christopher Hart said.
Daniel Wehner, a physician and director of emergency medicine at Memorial Medical Center in Johnstown, is one of those people. He’s seen motorcycle-related head injuries increase about 20 percent annually at his hospital since the helmet-law repeal.
Wehner said helmets are most important in crashes in which a rider is thrown over the motorcycle’s handlebars.
Without a helmet, riders are often pronounced dead at the scene or must be rushed to the hospital for bleeding in or around the brain or for spinal-cord injuries.
“There’s no logical reason not to wear a seat belt. The same thing with helmets — helmets save lives,” Wehner said.
Mike Bowers, owner of Black Dog Motorcycles in Wormleysburg, frames the debate as a matter of choice.
The 40-year rider said he chooses to wear a helmet even if it somewhat restricts his vision and hearing.
“Perhaps motorcycle people are more independent than a lot, but they’re just tired of the government telling them what to do,” Bowers said. “You can’t legislate common sense.”
Plenty of riders wear helmets, Bowers added.
When the economy was booming, motorcycle sales skyrocketed. But with the economic downturn of the last two years, sales have fallen and companies have downsized.
Harley-Davidson laid off 200 workers at its plant in York County in June after cutting about 1,000 positions there in late 2009. The company nearly moved the plant’s operations to another state, but Rendell threw a $15 million lifeline to the Milwaukee-based company to keep it in the midstate.
Bowers said $15,000 or so for a Harley “wasn’t that much money for a lot of people when times were good.” That helped put more motorcyclists on the road.
“The numbers have gotten so huge in ownership ... the accident rate is bound to be up,” Bowers said.
Frankel said treating crash injuries, plus any disabilities faced by those who survive a crash, affect all taxpayers by driving up health care costs, insurance premiums and state-funded programs for the disabled.