TENNESSEE - Cyclists want to override helmets Liberty act pushed in Legislature

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http://www.dnj.com/article/20120220/NEWS/302200028
Cyclists want to override helmets Liberty act pushed in Legislature 
10:18 PM, Feb. 19, 2012 |
Written by Tom Wilemon Gannett Tennessee
Filed Under News NASHVILLE — The helmet on Barry Cassetty’s head saved him from death or disability when an SUV pulled out in front of his 2008 Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle Ultra Classic last summer.
Despite his personal experience, Cassetty wants Tennessee’s helmet law repealed. “Enough of our rights have been taken away from us,” he said. The “Motorcyclist Liberty Restoration Act” currently before the Tennessee Legislature would put an end to the helmet requirement for motorcycle riders 21 and older. Even though no state has repealed a helmet law since Pennsylvania did it in 2003, the rising popularity of libertarian ideas gives the anti-helmet movement a boost. Medical associations in the state are keeping a close watch on the legislation, which will be discussed during a noon Tuesday hearing before the House Transportation Subcommittee. “Government is not our mom and dad, and we’re big people,” said Rep. Glen Casada, R-Williamson County, a co-sponsor of the legislation. “If someone wants to ride a motorcycle without a helmet, they should have that choice.” Both houses of the state Legislature are controlled by Republicans, and many of them value individual liberties over government protections. But the freedom to ride with the wind comes with financial consequences when taxpayers pick up the cost of traumatic brain injuries. The fiscal note attached to the bill states that in the two years after Pennsylvania repealed its helmet requirement, the incidence of traumatic brain injury from motorcycle accidents more than doubled from the prior two years. If TennCare’s expenditures for traumatic brain injury stemming from motorcycle crashes were to increase by 63 percent, the state would end up spending an additional $1.12 million. That figure does not include long-term care and rehabilitation costs, which would exceed that amount, according to the fiscal note. Repeated efforts to repeal the law have failed in the past, but public safety organizations aren’t sitting idle. The AAA Clubs of Tennessee supports the existing helmet law and issued a press release listing several insurance, hospital and doctors’ associations as also being opposed to a repeal.
“It is not just an individual right,” said Sharon Adkins, executive director of the Tennessee Nurses Association. “These individuals then have to be cared for. Brain injury is a lifelong issue. The citizens of Tennessee would end up with their tax dollars supporting these individuals, so it is much more than just an individual right. It’s no different than seat belts.”
Casada draws different correlations and says it’s not the role of government to overreach into people’s lives to protect them from accidents. “If we get to the point where that becomes the overriding issue, then we won’t be able to use fireworks and we won’t be able to rock climb,” he said. “A lot of the things that are personal freedoms that we enjoy in this country have risks. So are we going to have a — I’ll use the word ‘benevolent overseer’ — to dictate whether we can or can’t eat Big Mac hamburgers and say we can’t do fireworks? The story goes on and on and on.” At least one agency of the federal government, the National Transportation Safety Board, is monitoring the Tennessee legislation. Bill Goffard with the NTSB’s office of communications said a repeal would increase motorcycle fatalities. “Motorcycles make up 14 percent of highway fatalities, yet they are only 3 percent of the motor vehicles in the nation,” Goffard said. “That’s a frightening statistic and it’s been going up.” Motorcycle owners in Middle Tennessee can cross into Kentucky to feel the rush of wind from cruising its highways and back roads because that state has no helmet law. Cassetty used to take off his helmet at the state line but now keeps it on following his accident last summer. The helmet he wears was given to him by the family of a friend, who died in another accident. The friend wasn’t wearing his helmet. Preston Shaw, a member of The Steel Horsemen motorcycle club, thinks anyone who cruises down an interstate without a helmet is a “complete idiot.” That does not mean he supports the existing law. “I’m kind of a conservative bent, kind of libertarian in a lot of ways,” said Shaw, another Harley-Davidson rider. “Personally, I think the government honestly should not legislate whether you have common sense or not.” Andrew Duthie, the owner of Nashville Motorcycle Repair, echoes the sentiment. “I’m a big fan of motorcycle helmets, for sure,” Duthie said. “As far as changing the law, the libertarian in me says, hey, if someone doesn’t want to wear a helmet, that’s fine.”

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120220/OPINION03/302200007/No-helmet-means-less-freedom
No helmet means less freedom
  12:09 AM, Feb. 20, 2012 
The Trauma Center at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville saves lives. I have been a trauma surgeon at UT since the center was started 25 years ago.
During that time, the center has cared for more than 80,000 East Tennesseans severely injured in car crashes, motorcycle crashes, falls, shootings and other unexpected events. Over 95 percent of those injured survived because of the surgeons and physicians, nurses, techs, pharmacists, chaplains and other members of the trauma team who are available 24/7. Level One trauma centers have another job besides helping injured patients: providing education about trauma prevention. We know that the best way to have a good outcome from trauma is to never have those injuries occur. We often can return the injured person to normal. With some injuries, however, we save the patient, but they are left with permanent disability. The most common injury that causes this is traumatic brain injury. Once again this year, the Tennessee legislature is considering a bill to repeal the requirement for motorcycle riders over age 21 to wear helmets. Once again, as trauma-care professionals, we are opposed to this repeal. The trauma centers in Tennessee have testified before the legislature many times over the past several years, presenting scientific data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that supports motorcycle helmet use. Studies in Arkansas and Texas demonstrated that when helmet laws were repealed, helmet use fell in half and motorcycle deaths rose by 20-30 percent. Conversely, when helmet laws were enacted in California, Maryland, Oregon and several other states, motorcycle deaths dropped by one-third, and hospitalization for brain-injured motorcyclists dropped by half. Proponents of this bill choose to ignore or discount the scientific data and talk about the proposed economic benefits of helmet repeal or personal freedom of choice. They cite increases in motorcycle registrations, motorcycle purchases and in tourism because of the desire to ride without helmets. Economic data from Pennsylvania show some of this is true. The data also show that the cost increases are greater than the economic benefit, partly due to changes in law enforcement needs but also the increase in health-care costs. New, inexperienced riders are more likely to have a crash. Without helmets, riders are more likely to have brain injuries that are costly to treat, require rehabilitation and long-term nursing home care, and eliminate the victim from being a taxpaying member of society. Riders often state that if they are killed in a crash because they are not wearing a helmet, that that should be their choice. I support freedom from outside interference, as long as your personal freedom does not impact that of others. Your death impacts your family. The impact may be even worse when they learn that your brain injury was not fatal, but left you unable to communicate, unable to care for or feed yourself, or unable to live at home. That impact is very hard on your family, but it is also hard on trauma-care professionals like me, because we are the ones who have to tell your family that you lived — but you will never again be the person you once were.