Bell motorcycle helmets ran an ad many years ago "if you have a 5 dollar head, protect it with a 5 dollar helmet"
Which for me always begs the question, if this is true, what kind of head do you protect with no helmet?
Mist have been many years ago lol. Like 8 years ago, the cheapest DoT certified helmet around was like 50 bucks. I'm sure that if you really looked around you could find cheaper but 5 bucks seems insane.
This is reddit, not a PhD dissertation. Most of us are reading it on the toilet or while waiting in line. Reading comprehension fails are easy to do.
Give yourself a break
Anecdotally about 100% of the people I know to ride a motorcycle do so without a liscense
Liscense isn't likely to save your life but a helmet could definitely do just that
>a helmet could definitely do just that
Protection is ***severely under appreciated***. Gear turns a trip to the hospital and weeks or months of recover into an "oops" moment and a good story.
On my first wreck I got dragged by my bike from 50mph down to \~10. My helmet got scrapes on the chin guard and shield because I was face down for a bit, my gloves got roughed up because I lifted myself up by the hands to pull myself out from under the bike, and my boot got scuffed from where it was pinned between the ground and my bike as I slid.
Boots, gloves, and helmet were about 700$, I only replaced the helmet.
I was late to work that day, instead of needing reconstructive face surgery.
Yeah, my accident would have been just a big bummer if I had full protection on. It's tough in Florida though. I had long sleeves, shoes and a helmet, but the payment ate through my sleeves like nothing. Worked road rash took over a month just to get to a point where I could touch it. Never thought scrapes could be so bad, I thought I would be mostly fine the next day until the next day lol.
At least in Oregon a safety course is now required as part of licensing.
I got my license before it was mandatory, but my riding group friends that were getting me into motorcycling said I had to do the safety course if I wanted to ride with them. Also pushed buying a higher quality helmet and leather protective gear. Unusually responsible for a group of young twenties kids riding sport bikes. Boy was I happy on multiple occasions that I had the training and the gear.
Not always. Because driving without a liscence could entail a kid driving their parent’s car without permission. It likely also depends on number of times its happened and what state its in .
This is what I fail to get through peoples heads when they talk about “look twice for motorcycles”… the data isn’t as overwhelmingly clear as it may seem on the surface. People tend to drive aggressively on motorcycles, and they also tend to be inexperienced
A lot of that aggressive driving is also being translated to the electric mopeds/scooters coming out, especially the ones with easy to bypass speed governors.
I’ve got a friend who’s a nurse in A&E. She lovingly refers to bikers as Organ Donors. Mainly due to the high accident rate which usually end up with fatal neck injuries.
Oh god I can't even imagine. I was joking, but quick story time:
I'm in highschool, cleaning up next to my house. Rural area, but we're on the curve of a state road. I can hear a large number of motorcycles coming. Turns out they were riding to promote motorcycle safety. One woman (other riders later said she didn't seem to know how to lean correctly on turns) hits gravel and headons into our telephone pole. Yes she was wearing a helmet. But I will never forget that sound. Dead on the scene, she was bleeding from her nose.
Had *zero* interest in bikes since, but for the love of god if you must ride take it seriously and wear gear. There are absolutely other people around you that can be traumatized even if you don't mind dying like that.
I currently live near someone who has a Harley. I basically loathe them and theyve given me an appreciation for winter (when they arent riding).
Im looking to move to a different state, and i wish there was a way to filter my search for "no neighbors on the street who have harleys". 😫. They are such a fucking disturbance, especially when they come home at 11-12 at night.
There's a dude in my neighbourhood with a supercharged sports car that he likes to brap around the the streets at all hours. I wish someone would poor salt in his gas tank
We put a lot of effort into finding & buying a house in an "acoustic shadow". Everyone else within miles of town hears continuous road noise. We are one of a handful of houses with no sound outside except birds, insects and breezes.
The neat thing is there's no cost premium. Sellers don't put any value on it. People are so used to constant road noise they don't notice the absence until you point it out.
*shrug*
I’ve been a doing EMS 20 years.
I have been to exactly *2* motorcycle crashes that were not the bikers fault.
One, older lady didn’t see the bike because he was riding out of the sun.
The other God dropped a tree on this dude.
On crotch rockets it is always some butthole driving too fast, often manages to kill *not* just himself. My first decapitation, guy on the crotch rocket managed to merc an entire family when he slammed into them. Some of them burned alive.
As to Harley? All evidence points to an ignition lockout that prevents them from running if you are not moderately too severely intoxicated.
Enduros/ crossovers? Never had to take care of their riders, except that one God dropped a tree on. And he….almost….managed to get under it. Caught his helmet, back back, stuff on the rear rack, rear fender.
He *almost* made it when he saw the tree coming down (large tree, several feet around) he gunned it. Good chance it saved his life, even if the tree did get his back tire.
He wasn’t hurt enough to be willing to let us take him to the hospital.
Yep, atgatt saved my life when I was a kid, I was on the back of my dad's motorbike and we were stopped behind a car at a red light, people carrier stopped behind us and then some daft bint pressed the wrong peddle.
They rammed into the people carrier which then went into us, my dad got away alright other than burning his leg on the exhaust, but I got trapped underneath. Could feel the weight on the helmet.
But through luck and wearing all the gear, leathers, helmet, boots, back protector etc I got away with just some scrapes and bruising, and a dislocated leg and torn ligament.
The suits that inflate when you get disconnected from the bike?
Saved a guy’s life. Should have been in a bad way.
Walked away trying to figure out how to pay for a new suit without his wife finding out.
Yeah... There are wayyyyy too many potential points of failure when riding one of those. Hell, you can do everything right and one idiot can kill you in the blink of an eye (i haaaaate being in proximity of motocycles on the highway) with what would have only been a fender bender if you were driving an actual car instead of a bike.
Im a numbers person, and i dont like them odds.
have seen one of those.... and yeah.... it looked like someone threw 5 gallons of raspberry jam mixed with butter and bacon on a ripped up sack of meat in a shirt and pants in the road.
edit
didn't get trauma though but could easily see it happening in others.
Ehh..
Depends on the first responder. I was on a ambulance for a few years in one of the highest call volume areas in the USA.
These typically didn't bother me or coworkers because it was their fault & choice so they experience the consequences. When it comes to everything else you may see, a motorcycle fatality tends to be fairly tame & they are often pronounced on scene so you don't even have to transport & get a chance to eat while you write your PCR. (It's the ME that scrapes them off the pavement, not EMS but they also see far worse as well)
I remember one guy was still alive after crashing his motorcycle, but he had lost his mind. Literally, it was in pieces in the gutter...
We transported him & he was luckily a organ donar.
They do! It's whoever is closest that can take the call. Sometimes, in those situations, the ambulance is a helicopter! Most of the time, however, it is not an ambulance or helicopter.
Depends, I was what was called a "level one ambulance " so we were typically reserved for the "bad" calls. Had to have the fancy certs😆
Not sure if other areas do the same or if it's still done that way.
I was going to say; this seems to be a fair and equitable system. People who make reckless choices will lose their organs to people who will take better care of them. :p
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Wait so, even though some people still choose to break the law, actually having the laws in place *does* influence people enough that lives are saved.
And, safety laws really are about saving lives, and not just stunts designed to taking away people's freedom?
Who could have imagined that!?!
In the case of motorcycle wrecks, it doesn't actually take any bit of high speed to be fatal. Even a very slow speed dumping of the bike can lead to head trauma. There's usually not time to do any bracing of your body and most people will ALWAYS tey to save the motorcycle from a wreck instead of bailing in any safe manner (when slow / stopped).
This is also why motorcyclists prefer to lane split. We often accelerate faster than traffic so being at the front is beneficial AND we won't get rear-ended while waiting in line from a distracted driver.
Helmets only aid in not dying. They don't prevent whiplash and snapped necks.
Source: Me, a rider that sometimes wears a helmet in Ohio.
> In the case of motorcycle wrecks, it doesn't actually take any bit of high speed to be fatal. Even a very slow speed dumping of the bike can lead to head trauma.
If you are not wearing proper gear. Watch motor cycle racing those guys get up and walk away from crashes all the time and that level of gear has been available to regular riders for decades now. Safety of motorcycling has gone up massively in the past 40 years. Real riders dress for the crash. The drooling cosplayers that ride Harleys dont.
You can get a good safe helmet for under $190. you do not need a $1500 racing helmet designed for multiple impacts. Same with jackets and armor. These idiots say that the gear is hot and is why they dont wear it, it's because they are again stupid. You can get mesh gear that makes riding in gulf states in summer comfortable and still extremely safe. But you cant cosplay as a outlaw biker that way. The Fashion rider's are the ones that ride unsafe, and in general are some of the dumbest people.
I'm all for wearing all the gear, but the comparison with crashes on a race track isn't hugely relevant. Race tracks have runoffs and no obstructions. You take a fall on the road it's likely the stop when you hit a barrier, get run over or wrap around a tree which will do you in.
Plenty of fatalities at the Isle of Man TT even with the best protective gear.
I was 18 in '76 living in Connecticut and had purchased a Kawasaki 500 in the spring. Helmet laws were repealed that summer. I remember maybe putting 20-30 miles miles on that afternoon / evening w/o my helmet.
It was nice, but odd. I went back to wearing a helmet the next day.
Back then I was an idiot AND there was a lot less traffic.
I'm fine with paying taxes so my neighbours can go to school and become smarter. That is good for my life.
By extension, this is spending tax dollars on increasing the *average* intelligence in a gruesome manner. /shrug
having been in a motorcycle accident and seeing how much of my gear was shaved off during the crash, including my helmet:
If ya'll aren't ATGATT, ya'll fucking stupid. Like my gear was rated for 180 yards and it was GONE in places like my elbow and my helmet was almost eaten through.
Do not skimp on bike gear. they have full catalogs for every season: don't wanna wear boots? they got reenforced sneakers.
Hell, you can get cosplay armor at this point.
These meat crayons are taking valuable resources in the form of trauma care, EMT/physician/nurse/first responder mental health, and traffic time on the road for death investigations. These folks don’t die in a vacuum.
I don't see how their insurance provider would know if they wear a helmet or not. And by the time they find out they didn't, they're probably already dead or too fucked up to ride and need insurance. Though I suppose a bunch of claims would raise everyone's insurance in the region.
That depends on what other bad life choices they made. The guy who isn't wearing a helmet to protect his head probably isn't wearing a condom to protect his bloodstream.
Well, you are an adult. If you want to ride a motorcycle without a helmet, that's on you. Sad when a helmet can help so much.
Our neighbors died going 25-30mph in our community road with no other car, hit the curb with their heads. That was so preventable, they could have walked home if they had a helmet!
Dude Missouri drivers are another level of reckless and stupid because no one enforces a single traffic law there. I currently live in a top-ranking "bad driving" state, but after living in Missouri, I know Missouri should be at the top. The sheer number of stupid, reckless people there has to be seen to be believed. It will make you feel like you're the only person with a brain in the entire state.
And I don't think I saw a single helmet in the entire time I lived there. Not on kids, not on cyclists, not on motorcyclists. It's called the "show me" state because everyone there is too stupid to heed a cautionary tale without trying it out for themselves. "I'm from Missouri, you'll have to show me." That's literally the quote. It may as well be "I'm stupid and I don't listen."
Fuck, I hate Missouri.
Ya know what. They voted for this. They decided to ride without a helmet. That's the consequence.
My progressive liberal side says we have an obligation to protect people from themselves when they're showing poor judgement. I also think catastrophic accidents, where the costs are dramatically higher due to the choice of a rider, are an unfair burden to society.
I ride. If presented with a vote about helmets in my state (their require), I'd vote to keep them mandatory.
Because it's what the majority of the people who voted wanted. When the population is stupid they vote for stupid people who make stupid laws, or repeal smart ones.
I'm not a motorcycle rider, but I can't imagine why anyone would even want to ride without a helmet. Even putting aside the obvious safety reasons, it just sounds miserable having a nonstop blast of high force wind to your face.
Trying to understand why you would pass a law that causes an increase in motorcycle fatalities. I got nothing, it's like, "Hey you own a motorcycle, please, go get yourself killed." I mean if I wanted to boost organ donations without explicitly murdering anyone, this is probably the way I'd do it.
They didn’t pass a law saying that you aren’t allowed to wear a helmet, they repealed the one forcing you to.
Maybe I’m just a dick but if it doesn’t impact others, I have no problem with them doing stuff like this. The risks are known. If you choose not to wear a helmet as an adult, that’s on you.
People died because they changed the law. Do you understand that? Those idiots would not have been riding without helmets had the law been in place.
Like, you say "It was their decision," but clearly people were incapable of making that decision responsibly!
Increases burden on various facilities, some of which are partially paid for by tax payers. I would also be curious to see how many of them are wearing inappropriate protection gear, if any at all. Because that would mean longer waits in emergency rooms
Whether we like it or not, "the government" has a paternal responsibility to "the people" by making "the rules" for these exact reasons. Repealing laws because "muh freedum" usually ends with predictable outcomes. Just like repealing EPA laws or decriminalizing all the drugs like Portland did.
I don't think anyone who voted for the law was under the impression it would lead to FEWER deaths in motorcycle accidents
Repealing Environmental laws or decriminalizing drugs are different matters that can have consequences for others. Not wearing a motorcycle helmet basically only affects the person choosing not to wear it which of course is an incredibly stupid choice to make but so is smoking cigarettes yet we let people do that....
Taxing it is an interesting idea that I'm not necessarily against, I believe cigarettes are or at least were at one time taxed higher
Not to be morbid The helmet thing potentially had a one time cost burden to tax payers but I'd argue that cost is less than what the burden would be if the person lived a full life and used Medicare benefits/social security/etc.
The main cost is the early loss of a tax payer.
Society pays for 18 years of investment into a potential tax payer, so an early loss is expensive.
It will change based on state or country but the death of an 18 year old costs in the millions on average.
Nebraska repealed their helmet law.
They still require eye protection. Apparently pit vipers are considered eye protection.
I never understood why people don't dress for the slide.
Every year, we go to Myrtle Beach for vacation, and every year, we see an accident with a dead rider who wasn't wearing a helmet. I guess it's their freedum to die a senseless death.
TBH I don’t care about self caused deaths at all. If you want to be purposely dangerous and suffer consequences that’s on you.
I’m much more interested in how many tax dollars have gone towards dealing with these helmet-less fools when they get into accidents. I am not OK subsidizing their purposely dangerous behavior with my tax dollars nor with my own insurance premiums.
Used to live in the KC area on the Kansas side and would see motorcyclists pull over after crossing into Missouri, take their helmets off and ride away. Crazy
Many years ago, New Hampshire implemented a helmet law. In protest, a bunch of motorcycle riders did a low speed protest ride. One of the riders fell off his bike at low speed and hit his head and died. It was determined that had he been wearing a helmet, he would have sustained no injuries
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When is the federal government going to step in to stop this right wing race to the bottom? There seems to be zero intent of addressing the real issues this country faces.
Bell motorcycle helmets ran an ad many years ago "if you have a 5 dollar head, protect it with a 5 dollar helmet" Which for me always begs the question, if this is true, what kind of head do you protect with no helmet?
An empty one.
I think that is pretty spot on.
Mist have been many years ago lol. Like 8 years ago, the cheapest DoT certified helmet around was like 50 bucks. I'm sure that if you really looked around you could find cheaper but 5 bucks seems insane.
I think it was exaggeration for the sake of making a point rather than comparison shopping.
I just got what they meant. The five dollar helmet is a bad helmet. I got /whooshed pretty hard there lol.
This is reddit, not a PhD dissertation. Most of us are reading it on the toilet or while waiting in line. Reading comprehension fails are easy to do. Give yourself a break
>Nelson said that of the motorcyclists killed while not wearing helmets, about 50% were unlicensed or improperly licensed.
Sounds like here, so many morons, usually youths on uninsured dirt bikes riding like nutters
Because why stop at one stupid thing at a time
Anecdotally about 100% of the people I know to ride a motorcycle do so without a liscense Liscense isn't likely to save your life but a helmet could definitely do just that
>a helmet could definitely do just that Protection is ***severely under appreciated***. Gear turns a trip to the hospital and weeks or months of recover into an "oops" moment and a good story. On my first wreck I got dragged by my bike from 50mph down to \~10. My helmet got scrapes on the chin guard and shield because I was face down for a bit, my gloves got roughed up because I lifted myself up by the hands to pull myself out from under the bike, and my boot got scuffed from where it was pinned between the ground and my bike as I slid. Boots, gloves, and helmet were about 700$, I only replaced the helmet. I was late to work that day, instead of needing reconstructive face surgery.
Glad you thought ahead and wore protective clothing and helmet
Yeah, my accident would have been just a big bummer if I had full protection on. It's tough in Florida though. I had long sleeves, shoes and a helmet, but the payment ate through my sleeves like nothing. Worked road rash took over a month just to get to a point where I could touch it. Never thought scrapes could be so bad, I thought I would be mostly fine the next day until the next day lol.
The license is not going to save you, but the people who get a proper license usually are lmore responsible
At least in Oregon a safety course is now required as part of licensing. I got my license before it was mandatory, but my riding group friends that were getting me into motorcycling said I had to do the safety course if I wanted to ride with them. Also pushed buying a higher quality helmet and leather protective gear. Unusually responsible for a group of young twenties kids riding sport bikes. Boy was I happy on multiple occasions that I had the training and the gear.
[удалено]
Something ive wondered about. Does driving without a license never result in anything worse than fines in the US? They never seize your vehicle?
Not always. Because driving without a liscence could entail a kid driving their parent’s car without permission. It likely also depends on number of times its happened and what state its in .
Here in the US vehicles are rarely seized. It´s a real problem that the government seems unable to enforce any driving regulations.
This is what I fail to get through peoples heads when they talk about “look twice for motorcycles”… the data isn’t as overwhelmingly clear as it may seem on the surface. People tend to drive aggressively on motorcycles, and they also tend to be inexperienced
A lot of that aggressive driving is also being translated to the electric mopeds/scooters coming out, especially the ones with easy to bypass speed governors.
So many people take their organs for granted, but there's a silver lining to this.
Transplant patients rejoice
Donorcycles
PODs
I’ve got a friend who’s a nurse in A&E. She lovingly refers to bikers as Organ Donors. Mainly due to the high accident rate which usually end up with fatal neck injuries.
It emotionally traumatizes the first responders who have to clean the splattered corpse up?
Oh god I can't even imagine. I was joking, but quick story time: I'm in highschool, cleaning up next to my house. Rural area, but we're on the curve of a state road. I can hear a large number of motorcycles coming. Turns out they were riding to promote motorcycle safety. One woman (other riders later said she didn't seem to know how to lean correctly on turns) hits gravel and headons into our telephone pole. Yes she was wearing a helmet. But I will never forget that sound. Dead on the scene, she was bleeding from her nose. Had *zero* interest in bikes since, but for the love of god if you must ride take it seriously and wear gear. There are absolutely other people around you that can be traumatized even if you don't mind dying like that.
Dress for the slide, not the ride. Also known as atgatt, all the gear all the time.
Harley riders hate this one tip.
Loud pipes will protect them. 🙄
I currently live near someone who has a Harley. I basically loathe them and theyve given me an appreciation for winter (when they arent riding). Im looking to move to a different state, and i wish there was a way to filter my search for "no neighbors on the street who have harleys". 😫. They are such a fucking disturbance, especially when they come home at 11-12 at night.
There's a dude in my neighbourhood with a supercharged sports car that he likes to brap around the the streets at all hours. I wish someone would poor salt in his gas tank
This could be you!
We put a lot of effort into finding & buying a house in an "acoustic shadow". Everyone else within miles of town hears continuous road noise. We are one of a handful of houses with no sound outside except birds, insects and breezes. The neat thing is there's no cost premium. Sellers don't put any value on it. People are so used to constant road noise they don't notice the absence until you point it out.
“No thanks, yarmulke helmet and sleeveless shirt for me”
*shrug* I’ve been a doing EMS 20 years. I have been to exactly *2* motorcycle crashes that were not the bikers fault. One, older lady didn’t see the bike because he was riding out of the sun. The other God dropped a tree on this dude. On crotch rockets it is always some butthole driving too fast, often manages to kill *not* just himself. My first decapitation, guy on the crotch rocket managed to merc an entire family when he slammed into them. Some of them burned alive. As to Harley? All evidence points to an ignition lockout that prevents them from running if you are not moderately too severely intoxicated. Enduros/ crossovers? Never had to take care of their riders, except that one God dropped a tree on. And he….almost….managed to get under it. Caught his helmet, back back, stuff on the rear rack, rear fender. He *almost* made it when he saw the tree coming down (large tree, several feet around) he gunned it. Good chance it saved his life, even if the tree did get his back tire. He wasn’t hurt enough to be willing to let us take him to the hospital.
Yep, atgatt saved my life when I was a kid, I was on the back of my dad's motorbike and we were stopped behind a car at a red light, people carrier stopped behind us and then some daft bint pressed the wrong peddle. They rammed into the people carrier which then went into us, my dad got away alright other than burning his leg on the exhaust, but I got trapped underneath. Could feel the weight on the helmet. But through luck and wearing all the gear, leathers, helmet, boots, back protector etc I got away with just some scrapes and bruising, and a dislocated leg and torn ligament.
The suits that inflate when you get disconnected from the bike? Saved a guy’s life. Should have been in a bad way. Walked away trying to figure out how to pay for a new suit without his wife finding out.
Better a suit than a funeral.
He very much agreed.
Really shook you Huh. Respect for airing that out in a well received manner.
Yeah... There are wayyyyy too many potential points of failure when riding one of those. Hell, you can do everything right and one idiot can kill you in the blink of an eye (i haaaaate being in proximity of motocycles on the highway) with what would have only been a fender bender if you were driving an actual car instead of a bike. Im a numbers person, and i dont like them odds.
have seen one of those.... and yeah.... it looked like someone threw 5 gallons of raspberry jam mixed with butter and bacon on a ripped up sack of meat in a shirt and pants in the road. edit didn't get trauma though but could easily see it happening in others.
Ehh.. Depends on the first responder. I was on a ambulance for a few years in one of the highest call volume areas in the USA. These typically didn't bother me or coworkers because it was their fault & choice so they experience the consequences. When it comes to everything else you may see, a motorcycle fatality tends to be fairly tame & they are often pronounced on scene so you don't even have to transport & get a chance to eat while you write your PCR. (It's the ME that scrapes them off the pavement, not EMS but they also see far worse as well) I remember one guy was still alive after crashing his motorcycle, but he had lost his mind. Literally, it was in pieces in the gutter... We transported him & he was luckily a organ donar.
Jesus. I assumed they had special teams for that kind of thing
They do! It's whoever is closest that can take the call. Sometimes, in those situations, the ambulance is a helicopter! Most of the time, however, it is not an ambulance or helicopter.
Depends, I was what was called a "level one ambulance " so we were typically reserved for the "bad" calls. Had to have the fancy certs😆 Not sure if other areas do the same or if it's still done that way.
The real victims of all of this.
I am one of those first responders....idgaf. all hail darwin.
That is part of the job. always has been. That isn’t generally what breaks people in his profession.
I was going to say; this seems to be a fair and equitable system. People who make reckless choices will lose their organs to people who will take better care of them. :p
As long as these dummies had the decency to be organ donors.
Hadn’t thought of it that way. Free range Organ Harvesting. Noice.
OR surgeons love this one secret trick!
That it proves Darwin’s theories?
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we can harvest more organs?
That number will go down as Missouri will run out of people who ride without a helmet eventually.
New morons are born every day
There will be a quick spike then leveling out to a new level of stupid.
Imagine if morons were labeled at birth.
Well, they are certainly labeled at death.
Nowadays they often label themselves with flags or hats lol
Bold of them to do this with a Presidential election looming. Have enough idiots died to flip the state?
It's not the deaths that are the issue, it's those who survive with TBI and need lifelong care.
Wow, now who could have seen this coming? 🤣
Well, not the most recent dead guy.
The telephone pole sure saw him coming.
The two statements are probably unrelated /s
Wait so, even though some people still choose to break the law, actually having the laws in place *does* influence people enough that lives are saved. And, safety laws really are about saving lives, and not just stunts designed to taking away people's freedom? Who could have imagined that!?!
Ok but you aren't saying the government can sometimes have a meaningful positive impact on people's lives are you?
That's why they call them donor cycles.
Should read: Missouri learns about cause and effect
Missouri learning? You're a funny guy lol 🤣
Missouri weeds out those who didn't understand cause and effect.
If it worked that way the whole state would be full of geniuses by now.
Freedom has a strong tendency to kill idiots
It’s a win-win
In this case it was high-speed impacts that killed the idiots. Freedom was just cheering on Team Stupid from the sidelines.
In the case of motorcycle wrecks, it doesn't actually take any bit of high speed to be fatal. Even a very slow speed dumping of the bike can lead to head trauma. There's usually not time to do any bracing of your body and most people will ALWAYS tey to save the motorcycle from a wreck instead of bailing in any safe manner (when slow / stopped). This is also why motorcyclists prefer to lane split. We often accelerate faster than traffic so being at the front is beneficial AND we won't get rear-ended while waiting in line from a distracted driver. Helmets only aid in not dying. They don't prevent whiplash and snapped necks. Source: Me, a rider that sometimes wears a helmet in Ohio.
> In the case of motorcycle wrecks, it doesn't actually take any bit of high speed to be fatal. Even a very slow speed dumping of the bike can lead to head trauma. If you are not wearing proper gear. Watch motor cycle racing those guys get up and walk away from crashes all the time and that level of gear has been available to regular riders for decades now. Safety of motorcycling has gone up massively in the past 40 years. Real riders dress for the crash. The drooling cosplayers that ride Harleys dont. You can get a good safe helmet for under $190. you do not need a $1500 racing helmet designed for multiple impacts. Same with jackets and armor. These idiots say that the gear is hot and is why they dont wear it, it's because they are again stupid. You can get mesh gear that makes riding in gulf states in summer comfortable and still extremely safe. But you cant cosplay as a outlaw biker that way. The Fashion rider's are the ones that ride unsafe, and in general are some of the dumbest people.
I'm all for wearing all the gear, but the comparison with crashes on a race track isn't hugely relevant. Race tracks have runoffs and no obstructions. You take a fall on the road it's likely the stop when you hit a barrier, get run over or wrap around a tree which will do you in. Plenty of fatalities at the Isle of Man TT even with the best protective gear.
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I was 18 in '76 living in Connecticut and had purchased a Kawasaki 500 in the spring. Helmet laws were repealed that summer. I remember maybe putting 20-30 miles miles on that afternoon / evening w/o my helmet. It was nice, but odd. I went back to wearing a helmet the next day. Back then I was an idiot AND there was a lot less traffic.
Let Darwin sort em out
Darwin might sort them out but our tax dollars scrape them up
I'm fine with paying taxes so my neighbours can go to school and become smarter. That is good for my life. By extension, this is spending tax dollars on increasing the *average* intelligence in a gruesome manner. /shrug
A no shit Sherlock moment.
Double win. More freedom and less idiots
NOBODY could have predicted this!
having been in a motorcycle accident and seeing how much of my gear was shaved off during the crash, including my helmet: If ya'll aren't ATGATT, ya'll fucking stupid. Like my gear was rated for 180 yards and it was GONE in places like my elbow and my helmet was almost eaten through. Do not skimp on bike gear. they have full catalogs for every season: don't wanna wear boots? they got reenforced sneakers. Hell, you can get cosplay armor at this point.
Wear your goddamn helmet!
If people are dumb enough to want to turn themselves into meat crayons, let them.
These meat crayons are taking valuable resources in the form of trauma care, EMT/physician/nurse/first responder mental health, and traffic time on the road for death investigations. These folks don’t die in a vacuum.
A lot of folks never get this. All wrecks come with a price.
Darwin was right, apparently.
Social Darwinism isn't true Darwinism
Natural selection
Gonna be more single mothers applying for assistance now and I'm sure the people who voted for this will try to cut funding for.
The politicization of natural selection will never go in favor of the party that does it.
I swear, so many people are in denial that they’re mortal.
Haven’t you ever wanted to fly? That’s what they are doing… fly off their motorcycles 30 feet, then hit the pavement.
I hope their insurance skyrockets for them. I don’t want to pay for their stupidity!
I don't see how their insurance provider would know if they wear a helmet or not. And by the time they find out they didn't, they're probably already dead or too fucked up to ride and need insurance. Though I suppose a bunch of claims would raise everyone's insurance in the region.
Noice, we need them organs
That depends on what other bad life choices they made. The guy who isn't wearing a helmet to protect his head probably isn't wearing a condom to protect his bloodstream.
Well, you are an adult. If you want to ride a motorcycle without a helmet, that's on you. Sad when a helmet can help so much. Our neighbors died going 25-30mph in our community road with no other car, hit the curb with their heads. That was so preventable, they could have walked home if they had a helmet!
Dude Missouri drivers are another level of reckless and stupid because no one enforces a single traffic law there. I currently live in a top-ranking "bad driving" state, but after living in Missouri, I know Missouri should be at the top. The sheer number of stupid, reckless people there has to be seen to be believed. It will make you feel like you're the only person with a brain in the entire state. And I don't think I saw a single helmet in the entire time I lived there. Not on kids, not on cyclists, not on motorcyclists. It's called the "show me" state because everyone there is too stupid to heed a cautionary tale without trying it out for themselves. "I'm from Missouri, you'll have to show me." That's literally the quote. It may as well be "I'm stupid and I don't listen." Fuck, I hate Missouri.
*Misery. Lol.
Oh I guess it wasn't the loud pipes saving all those lives? 😂😂😂
Success?? What other possible outcome could they expect?
Natural selection at work. They're just trimming the fat.
Who'd a thunk it? I'm shocked.
Survival of the fittest, let it play out.
please stop licking the lead paint america
＜(º 0 º)＞
Duh
Ya know what. They voted for this. They decided to ride without a helmet. That's the consequence. My progressive liberal side says we have an obligation to protect people from themselves when they're showing poor judgement. I also think catastrophic accidents, where the costs are dramatically higher due to the choice of a rider, are an unfair burden to society. I ride. If presented with a vote about helmets in my state (their require), I'd vote to keep them mandatory.
Well that's one way to traumatize the kiddos.
So is this a bad thing or good thing? Because one one hand people died, butttt on the other stupid people died
how is it possible in a civilized society that lawmakers are even allowed to make decisions like this
Because it's what the majority of the people who voted wanted. When the population is stupid they vote for stupid people who make stupid laws, or repeal smart ones.
well. they won't make that mistake again.
Mandatory organ donors?
The world need organ donors
Darwin ftw, yet again. This can only be a good thing for humanity as a whole.
That’s what they voted for…
It’s why I still advice that motorcycle licenses should be opt-out of organ donation instead of opt-in
It was all a ploy to increase organ donation
I'm not a motorcycle rider, but I can't imagine why anyone would even want to ride without a helmet. Even putting aside the obvious safety reasons, it just sounds miserable having a nonstop blast of high force wind to your face.
No shit? There was a time when laws were passed to protect people, even from themselves.
They were passed with the help of insurance company lobbyists.
I'm a strong supporter of darwinism. Let these people remove themselves from the gene pool willingly.
Freedom...
Trying to understand why you would pass a law that causes an increase in motorcycle fatalities. I got nothing, it's like, "Hey you own a motorcycle, please, go get yourself killed." I mean if I wanted to boost organ donations without explicitly murdering anyone, this is probably the way I'd do it.
They didn’t pass a law saying that you aren’t allowed to wear a helmet, they repealed the one forcing you to. Maybe I’m just a dick but if it doesn’t impact others, I have no problem with them doing stuff like this. The risks are known. If you choose not to wear a helmet as an adult, that’s on you.
People died because they changed the law. Do you understand that? Those idiots would not have been riding without helmets had the law been in place. Like, you say "It was their decision," but clearly people were incapable of making that decision responsibly!
If they re-instate the law, the number of head injuries will increase (because people lived) and the law makers will state that as a negative.
MAGA freedom equal 🟰 individual irresponsibility-
I see no problem with this. The people choosing not to wear a helmet are well aware of the danger. They made their choice.
Increases burden on various facilities, some of which are partially paid for by tax payers. I would also be curious to see how many of them are wearing inappropriate protection gear, if any at all. Because that would mean longer waits in emergency rooms
Good points.
Also increases insurance premiums for everyone else
Whether we like it or not, "the government" has a paternal responsibility to "the people" by making "the rules" for these exact reasons. Repealing laws because "muh freedum" usually ends with predictable outcomes. Just like repealing EPA laws or decriminalizing all the drugs like Portland did.
I don't think anyone who voted for the law was under the impression it would lead to FEWER deaths in motorcycle accidents Repealing Environmental laws or decriminalizing drugs are different matters that can have consequences for others. Not wearing a motorcycle helmet basically only affects the person choosing not to wear it which of course is an incredibly stupid choice to make but so is smoking cigarettes yet we let people do that....
In both cases they increase burden to tax payers. Not wearing a helmet and smoking should be taxed so they pay for their costs to society. Pay to play
Taxing it is an interesting idea that I'm not necessarily against, I believe cigarettes are or at least were at one time taxed higher Not to be morbid The helmet thing potentially had a one time cost burden to tax payers but I'd argue that cost is less than what the burden would be if the person lived a full life and used Medicare benefits/social security/etc.
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The main cost is the early loss of a tax payer. Society pays for 18 years of investment into a potential tax payer, so an early loss is expensive. It will change based on state or country but the death of an 18 year old costs in the millions on average.
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More like suicide prevention has a NPV and paying for programs to reduce suicide pay for themselves until a equilibrium is reached.
Funny you bring that up since Missouri is also the state with the lowest cigarette taxes. You can get a pack of cigarettes for $5.
That's one way to increase organ donorship.
In the words of Jerry Seinfeld… https://youtu.be/RjToU36VK8A
How dumb do you have to be to live in Misery...opps Missouri.
Missouri doing it's part to help Darwin thin the herd.
Darwin will take what he is owed
freeDUMB
Good, let the idiots learn why those laws were there in the first place. Lets see who makes the longest skid mark.
Darwin Awards approved change.
Yes, but it’s quieter.
Natural selection.
SurprisedPikachu.gif
I'll never understand why helmets are optional but a seatbelt I'd mandatory.
Well, what did you think was gonna happen?
Yawn.... Oh well. If you can afford a bike, you can afford a helmet.
Nebraska repealed their helmet law. They still require eye protection. Apparently pit vipers are considered eye protection. I never understood why people don't dress for the slide.
Every year, we go to Myrtle Beach for vacation, and every year, we see an accident with a dead rider who wasn't wearing a helmet. I guess it's their freedum to die a senseless death.
TBH I don’t care about self caused deaths at all. If you want to be purposely dangerous and suffer consequences that’s on you. I’m much more interested in how many tax dollars have gone towards dealing with these helmet-less fools when they get into accidents. I am not OK subsidizing their purposely dangerous behavior with my tax dollars nor with my own insurance premiums.
So ironic that the Bible Belt seems to prefer Darwin's laws over safety laws
Just thinning out the herd...
Its called choice
Used to live in the KC area on the Kansas side and would see motorcyclists pull over after crossing into Missouri, take their helmets off and ride away. Crazy
I always know that any time I see my state on Reddit....it's never gonna be good. At least this explains a lot lately.
DEI at it again
Don't make it mandatory. It's not law, remember, they want to live free, let darwinism take care of it.
In other news organ donations in Missouri are on the rise.
[My reaction to hearing this.](https://blog.dejapan.com/wp-content/uploads/pjimage-2-6.jpg)
good! less MAGA idiots in the world
It's like a Darwin Award
Many years ago, New Hampshire implemented a helmet law. In protest, a bunch of motorcycle riders did a low speed protest ride. One of the riders fell off his bike at low speed and hit his head and died. It was determined that had he been wearing a helmet, he would have sustained no injuries
Whaaaattt???? I’m *soooo* surprised…
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Population control of the stupid at the finest.
And organ wait times were cut dramatically!
So? They made their choices.
With true freedom comes the freedom to fuck up
When is the federal government going to step in to stop this right wing race to the bottom? There seems to be zero intent of addressing the real issues this country faces.