Las Vegas Review Journal - Report about our helmet choice bill SB177

OFF THE WIRE
A Libertarian/staunch veteran supporter (Vic Moss) who happens to be a private sector motorcycle safety trainer sent this to the senator in charge of SB177 and to the Las Vegas Review Journal. (And I, of course, offered my 2 cents.)
It's a good thing I've been sharing my findings with him, as he was first to find the article and took swift action.

Senator Breeden,
After reading an article in today’s R-J article concerning motorcycle helmet laws, I thought I should once again send you information that refutes what our opponents are feeding our elected representatives. As I testified, these people are slick when it comes to the truth; more lies, damn lies and statistics. Here’s a link to the article: http://www.lvrj.com/news/legislator-seeks-to-repeal-helmet-law-118320764.html

I am angered over the clear bias against the changes to the law by the Review-Journal. According to the article, there was a “large contingent of police” in attendance, but in fact, there were three cops who were actually paid lobbyist using manipulated data to make their case. I am more irritated that our tax dollars pay for these people to lie to our elected officials.

Mr. Bill Brown from the Center for Traffic Safety Research, University of Nevada School of Medicine, sent this e-mail to John Johansen of the Office of Traffic Safety, who testified at your committee meeting:

“John, the two graphs are showing the same information. I just reversed the axis information in case one is better to use over the other. Now, the average cost for helmeted over unhelmeted may not be as great as one would think, but that is due to the helmet saving a life and incurring a huge amount of expenses whereas an unhelmeted person in a similar crash would have died on the scene and not occur any medical expense. Also, I do not have data from northern Nevada (Renown trauma center), so this information is for southern Nevada only. Please contact me if you need any clarification or additional information.”

Mr. Johansen only used part of the data, while Mr. Brown admits to manipulating the presentation, to make their case. These lobbyists want to claim that motorcycle riders are both a burden on society because of the medical costs, and yet demand that we wear helmets, which Mr. Brown indicates increase medical costs. They can’t have it both ways.

Using Mr. Browns own data, it looks much different when averaged out:

Average Charges

Average InsuredAverage Non-Ins.Average HelmetedAverage

Non-Helmeted

Helmeted Insured$90,550$87,805.50$88,730.00$83,988.00$88,730.00

Helmeted Non-Insured$77,426

Non-Helmeted Insured$85,061

Non-Helmeted Non-Insured$100,034

The differences are insignificant. I cannot reiterate my support for this change enough, and ask that you ignore anything paid lobbyists have to say. They are the true drain on society and everything they say should be ignored.

Victor Moss


TigerLily
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