| Subject: |
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House Panel Repeals Mandatory Helmet Law |
| Name: |
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GirlGeek |
| Date Posted: |
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May 8, 08 - 8:43 AM |
| Email: |
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girlgeekdel@aol.com |
| Website: |
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http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080507/NEWS01/805070328/1002/NEWS01 |
| Message: |
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Mike Hasten
mhasten@gannett.com
BATON ROUGE - Less than one week into Motorcycle Safety Month, a House committee has voted to lift the law requiring motorcycle riders to wear safety helmets.
Wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle on Louisiana highways would be optional for anyone age 18 or older if House Bill 1295 by Rep. Mert Smiley, R-Port Vincent, becomes law. The bill was approved Tuesday by the House Transportation Committee with a 10-5 vote.
"If you pass this bill, people wearing certified helmets will keep wearing them," Smiley told the committee. "You're not losing a thing by passing this."
Smiley, who got unanimous approval Monday of a bill requiring motorcycle safety training courses for new riders, included a mandatory education component in HB1295, too.
He said it could lead to more people wearing approved helmets instead of "novelty" ones that offer little protection.
Louisiana has had an on-again, off-again helmet law since 1968, most recently altered by Gov. Mike Foster, who in 1999 made it optional like Smiley's bill.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who reinstated the mandatory law in 2004.
Former Louisiana Highway Safety Commission Director Jim Champagne, who says he lost his job because he disagreed with Gov. Bobby Jindal on the helmet issue, told the committee that wearing a helmet "may be the one thing that protects you from a head injury."
Champagne said motorcycle riders make up 1.5 percent of the motoring public but 8 percent of traffic deaths.
Arguing for the bill, Duane Cowart of Baton Rouge said 30 states allow riders a choice and 20 states, including Louisiana, require helmets.
Cowart said the biggest problem is that automobile drivers run over motorcycles, not that the motorcyclists have done anything wrong.
"Without a helmet, you see better, hear better and are more aware," so riders can better avoid getting into collisions, he said.
Saying that riders would be safer without helmets "flies in the face of logic and flies in the face of common sense," Champagne said.
"It's tantamount to believing in the tooth fairy."
Dr. Todd Thoma, emergency medicine specialist at the LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport and Caddo Parish coroner, told the panel "I vehemently oppose repealing this law."
"You're 32 times more likely to die when you get on a motorcycle," Thoma said, so riders should want as much protection as they can get. "I ride a motorcycle, but I wouldn't get on one without proper protection."
He said he now rides only off-road because "after 15 years in the trauma center, I'm afraid to get on a highway."
Thoma said the legislation requiring helmets of drivers under age 18 protects the youngest riders but "the average age dying on a motorcycle is 35 years old."
Smiley said helmets are rated protective in crashes of only 13 to 19 mph, so they are of little use at higher speeds.
Thoma said that rating is determined by bashing a helmet against a concrete wall, not how helmets offer the most protection.
He said most collisions send drivers skipping across roadways and helmets keep heads from banging on pavement.
He said helmets are 37 percent effective in reducing death and 67 percent effective in reducing injury in major crashes.
Smiley's bill now goes to the House for debate. |
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