HELMET LAW FACTS

By Warren Woodward, Chair, State Legislative Committee
Street Bikers United Hawaii, 2007

If helmets have significant safety benefits, then the ratio of deaths to accidents should decline as the use of helmets increases, such as after a mandatory helmet law is enacted. Yet in most states the Death to Accident Ratio (DAR) averages between 2% to 3% both before and after helmet laws have been enacted.

Below is a table prepared from information supplied by the Maryland Department of Transportation for the years 1985 to 2000.
Another example is from California before and after their helmet law enactment on January 1, 1992 (data from CHP). Note that the Death to Accident Ratio is little changed. If helmets worked, there should be a dramatic decrease in the DAR for years 1992 & 1993, but there isn’t.


1990 1991 1992 1993
Fatalities 565 509 328 302
Accidents 20,386 18,402 13,708 12,269
DAR 2.896 2.896 2.496 2.596
Note that the total number of accidents and deaths in both Maryland and California did decline after helmet law enactment. This is what helmet law proponents always point to as proof that “helmet laws save lives”. What they

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