OFF THE WIRE
Groups butt heads about S.C. helmet laws
ANDERSON COUNTY — Mike Tiller had just revved his Harley-Davidson forward at a green light when a Chevrolet rammed into the back of his motorcycle. The impact threw Tiller off his bike, and he died 12 hours later of head trauma, according to Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore.
The accident happened Aug. 9 on Liberty Highway, a month after had Tiller finished painting a tractor-trailer on U.S. 76 that warns drivers to watch for motorcyclists. The stark black-and-white message greets drivers on their way to Clemson, reminding them to “Look twice, save a life.”
Tiller, who was from Pendleton, was employed at Residue Recycling, the polymer company that owns the trailer, for 17 years. He worked on the trailer until 11:30 p.m. some evenings, wiping sweat from his brow and stopping to drink an occasional beer.
He pushed and pushed so hard to get that trailer painted, and probably about a month after he finished the sign he was a victim himself,” said Chris Hope, plant manager at Residue Recycling. “It makes you stop and think.”Tiller was 43 when he died. He was one of 57 motorcyclists who weren’t wearing helmets when they died on South Carolina roads in 2011. Motorcyclists not wearing helmets make up 80 percent of the 76 motorcycle deaths as of Sept. 13, numbers from the state Department of Public Safety indicate.
Bikers against helmet laws say they infringe on their personal freedom, while coroners and trauma surgeons witness the often-deadly end many motorcyclists meet.
Accidents are plentiful.
In 2010, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 1,820 motorcycle accidents occurred in South Carolina. The death rate in North Carolina, a state with an all-inclusive helmet law, is drastically lower than in South Carolina.While 76 motorcyclists have died in South Carolina this year, three motorcyclists have died in North Carolina, according to the state’s Highway Patrol office. The North Carolina State Highway Patrol does not track motorcycle helmet use in fatalities, said Sgt. Jeff Gordon.
Hope wants to add a memorial message on one side of the trailer for Tiller, his employee and friend.
James Michael Tiller always wore a do-rag or a baseball cap unless he was showering or sleeping, but he almost never wore a helmet, said Marie “Tutti” Hood, his girlfriend.
“I don’t even know if he owned one, and I still wouldn’t,” she said. “I’m a firm believer of when it’s your time, it’s your time.”
On a Saturday night at the Twisted Spoke, a biker bar in Pendleton, Hood sold cans of beer to patrons. It was the kind of night that Tiller, with whom she was friends for 30 years before they started dating, would stop by to see her. A hard-rock band playing on an outdoor platform vibrated the ground, overpowering even loud conversation.
Hood has picked up the phone to call Tiller “about 150 times” over the past month and said she misses his teasing and playful aggravation.
She paused, smiling in the middle of the Saturday-night chaos, reflecting on how much Tiller meant to her.
“He was actually the greatest,” she said. “I didn’t realize that until he was gone.”
After his death she couldn’t help remembering a phrase he said all the time.
“He always said only the good die young, and the young die first,” Hood said.
Tiller never married, but his survivors include a young son and parents who’d already mourned their other son who died at age 43.
‘TOO MANY CELL PHONES’
South Carolina, along with 27 other states, enforces partial motorcycle laws, meaning riders of a certain age and older do not have to wear helmets. That age is 21 in South Carolina, but in other states, such as Utah, it is 18.
Anti-helmet advocacy groups and state lawmakers played tug-of-war with helmet laws until the 1997-98 legislative year, the last time a South Carolina representative introduced a bill for a stricter law.
From 1993 to 1998, representatives tried five times to change the law to cover all motorcycle riders, but lobbyists for anti-helmet law groups such as A Brotherhood Against Totalitarian Enactment fought it every time.
“As bikers, we’re sneaky, too,” said Rick “Ponytail” Allison. “We catch on.”
He has been a member of ABATE of South Carolina about 15 years, and he had known Tiller since they were boys. They attended T.L. Hanna High School together and rode the school bus with the school’s adopted mascot, James “Radio” Kennedy, in the ’80s. Allison is trying to spread the message to drivers that his friend championed. The “Look twice, save a life” campaign started about 12 years ago, he said, and it acknowledges the automobile driver’s role in motorcycle safety. Allison is state president of the alliance.
“Our problem is cars aren’t looking out for us,” he said. “There’s too many cell phones.”
Many people assume South Carolina doesn’t have a helmet law, Allison said, but an all-inclusive helmet law passed in 1967.
In 1980 the law was loosened to enforce helmet restrictions only on those 20 years old and younger, according to research provided by the state House of Representatives.
‘TAG GED BY THE GOVERNMENT’
Imposing an all-inclusive law would mean nothing more to Allison than the government flexing its muscles, again.
“I feel like I’m being sanctioned and put out as a pawn, and I don’t like that,” he said. “We’re already tagged by the government. You have a South Carolina driver’s license. You have a Social Security number. You have an IRS.”
He points out that what is supposed to save your life can sometimes take it away.
Allison survived a car wreck as a teen and wasn’t wearing his seat belt. He said a state trooper told him the seat belt would have killed him.
But as strong as his opinions are, honor comes first
“The day of Mike’s funeral I wore a helmet, and that was out of respect for Mike’s family,” Allison said.
About half of Allison’s friends wear helmets.
“Look, some of it is they’ve always done it, and some have added it since Mike got hit,” he said.
Allison said he doesn’t wear a helmet because he can’t hear with one on.
That’s not a risk Robert Gladden is willing to take. As vice president of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, he encourages bikers to wear helmets, but the foundation does not push for stricter laws.
It’s never occurred to him not to wear a helmet.
He’s been riding a motorcycle for 41 years and even dresses for a ride around his Irvine, Calif., community, to his neighbor’s amusement.
“I came out and I was wearing my helmet, my boots, my gloves even though I was riding six blocks, and my neighbor kind of laughed and said, ‘You really are serious about safety,’ ” Gladden said.
The risk, he stresses, is just too great.
Leaving a helmet at home is fine — “in a perfect world, without cars, SUVs, pavement and guardrails and rain,” he said.
“Not only do you have the loss of life, but think about all of the family affected.”
Scott Kirby, a biker and a regular at the Twisted Spoke, said a helmet might aid in a slow-speed accident, but fate ultimately determines survival.
“It’s a good idea, but if it’s your time, it’s your time,” he said. “I’ve known people that’s had helmets and had accidents and had helmets on and it didn’t matter.”
Anderson Deputy Coroner Charlie Boseman sees the deadly result of not wearing helmets, but they can’t save every life. On Aug. 27, John Daniel Lyons of Easley died after he ran off Cherry Street Extension and hit a concrete culvert. He was not wearing a helmet, and he broke his neck and suffered fatal chest injuries.
“Although he didn’t have a helmet on this guy had enough chest trauma and wouldn’t have survived,” Boseman said.
Lyons’ case, he added, is an anomaly.
“If they are wearing helmets, then most of the time they survive the accident,” he said.
CONCUSSIONS AND ‘HEAD BLEEDS’
If Anderson-area riders receive serious head injuries, they go to Greenville Memorial Hospital’s trauma unit. Dr. Benjamin Manning, director of trauma surgery, said that of the 1,900 patients who come through his operating room a year, 200 are related to motorcycle, mo-ped or dirt bike injuries, and about 10 percent of those patients die. “Probably a majority of them don’t have helmets that we see,” he said.
Many seem to test fate.
“There’s a high rate of recurrent trauma,” Manning said. “We see people that come back in with motorcycle wrecks again. No, they don’t always learn their lesson.”
The number of injured motorcyclists at the hospital suffering head injuries has fluctuated from 2009 to June 2011. In 2009, 95 patients received head injuries, and 16 were wearing helmets; eight died.
The next year 124 patients had head injuries related to motorcycle accidents, and only 23 were wearing helmets; 12 died. This year three bikers have died out of 52 patients who suffered head injuries, and 15 were wearing helmets.
“We see a lot of concussions from motorcyclists not wearing helmets,” said Cathie Osika-Landreth, coordinator of the trauma program at Greenville. “On average it seems like in the better weather months we see about six serious head bleeds each month.”
Medical costs often fall to the public, including billions in emergency-room care and insurance premiums, according to the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Riders currently receive no motorcycle insurance incentives if they wear helmets.
Like automobile drivers, riders receive lower insurance rates for good driving records and can also get discounts by attending safety classes, said Rick Bridwell, an agent at Allstate in Anderson.
But the classes can only encourage riders to wear helmets and usually stress awareness of surroundings, Bridwell said.
“I appreciate that you can choose, but common sense should dictate,” he said.
B.J. Shepard, a Twisted Spoke regular and the girlfriend of Kirby, treasures that freedom. She said she sees pros and cons to wearing and not wearing helmets.
But she wants the final say.
“We’re in America, and it should be free will, but it’s not,” she said.
Chris Hope, who worked with Mike Tiller for six years, will never forget the 6 a.m. phone call telling him Tiller was dead.
“My heart just dropped, and my mind went blank,” he said. “We can’t bring him back and put a helmet on him, but there’s a pretty good chance the helmet could have saved him.”
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2011/sep/17/groups-butt-heads-about-sc-helmet-laws/
