Biker dies helmet-less during helmet law protest ride

[zarn02]

Wearing a seatbelt in a car isn't a choice (with NH being the exception), why should wearing a helmet on a motorcycle be a choice?

Riding at all is less safe than being in a car, so why should we have the choice to do it?

[justinrhenry]

Wearing a seatbelt in a car isn't a choice (with NH being the exception), why should wearing a helmet on a motorcycle be a choice?

   

Seatbelts should be optional too.  One bad law doesn't make it right to create other similarly bad laws.

[minnesotamonster]

You can't really compare seatbelt laws to helmet laws. Not wearing your seatbelt endangers other passengers in your vehicle as well as bystanders if you get thrown from the vehicle. Not wearing a helmet is only a detriment to yourself.

[scduc]

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. If your brave enough to ride without, more power to ya, just dont come begging on my door when you need a lifetime of financial support and your wheel chair bound and cant feed yourself.

[Ddan]

. Not wearing your seatbelt endangers other passengers in your vehicle as well as bystanders if you get thrown from the vehicle.

Seriously?

[Vindingo]

Riding at all is less safe than being in a car, so why should we have the choice to do it?

Because it can be a more efficient means of transportation, more cost effective, takes up less space, uses less resources... it is a perfectly legitimate form of transportation.  

 

Seatbelts should be optional too.  One bad law doesn't make it right to create other similarly bad laws.

While we are at it, lets do away with speed limits and traffic lights 

[iRam]

With or without helmet laws, ill always be wearing mine.

[herm]

I also disagree with the govt. mandating things like seat belts and helmets, but I still don't want to have to pay for someone else 'lifestyle' choices.  Why couldn't you get a different colored sticker when you register your bike to differentiate between those who wear helmets and those who have payed an increased insurance premium for the increased risk of riding without protection.

or how about requiring high risk insurance for those who wont wear a helmet? Better yet, have the insurance company say "if you are in an accident without a helmet on..no coverage."?

[zarn02]

Because it can be a more efficient means of transportation, more cost effective, takes up less space, uses less resources... it is a perfectly legitimate form of transportation.  

A similarly formed argument could be made for public transportation, and by extension compulsory public transportation.

Yes, buses and trains are bigger than bikes, but they hold twenty times the people or more, and one bus is "a more efficient means of transportation, more cost effective, takes up less space, uses less resources" than the same number of people transported by car, and satisfies the safety-minded as well.

If we look at these arguments from a purely utilitarian point of view, then we'll find ourselves shoe-horned into the most cost and space effective, lowest resource, most efficient form of transport for the greatest number of people.

But I, at least, don't want to live in a society which bases its decisions of what a committee of people sitting 'round a great mahogany desk decide is the "Greatest Good for the Greatest Number."

[Spidey]

I don't have good arguments for why helmet laws should exist (actually, I do, but they're pretty boring).  I just know that there's a whole buncha stupid out there, and that sometimes the stupid needs a little reminder that if it stays stupid, it gets dead.  And then sometimes you gotta drag the stupid outta Darwin's clutches, kicking and screaming .  Not cuz the stupid doesn't have the freedom to be stupid or the God-given right to make itself dead, but just cuz we all have an obligation to the stupid to try to keep it around just a wee bit longer.  I'm not sure why that is, but I don't feel too bad about that.    

But I, at least, don't want to live in a society which bases its decisions of what a committee of people sitting 'round a great mahogany desk decide is the "Greatest Good for the Greatest Number."

There's a helmet committee that sits around a mahogany desk?  Now what's just weird.  

[Vindingo]

A similarly formed argument could be made for public transportation,

We have the choice to take public transportation, drive cars, or walk.  You can't smoke on public transportation, you have to wear a seat belt when driving a car and you can't walk in the middle of the street. Most people wouldn't question non-smoking public transport, or that people shouldn't walk in the middle of the street... greatest good for the greatest number.      

I was just answering your question of why we should "have the choice" to ride motorcycles.  That choice has nothing to do with safety.  

It is narrow minded to think that only the person not wearing a helmet carries the burden of their actions.  It is a financial burden we all pay for in healthcare, insurance and taxes.    

But I, at least, don't want to live in a society which bases its decisions of what a committee of people sitting 'round a great mahogany desk decide is the "Greatest Good for the Greatest Number."

How do you think it works now?

[Vindingo]

There's a helmet committee that sits around a mahogany desk?  Now what's just weird.  

I think I told you about the desk at Z one night... it was for them.

[ducatiz]

I think people miss the point.

This is a topic about a dude who died by landing on his head cause he didn't want to wear a helmet.

Not a discussion about what freedoms I have lost because Uncle Sam makes me wear a Foley catheter.

[Ddan]

I think people miss the point.

This is a topic about a dude who died by landing on his head cause he didn't want to wear a helmet.

Not a discussion about what freedoms I have lost because Uncle Sam makes me wear a Foley catheter.

Actually, it's a topic about a guy who died by landing on his head while attending an event to defend his freedom to die by landing on his head. 

[Howie]

Actually, it's a topic about a guy who died by landing on his head while attending an event to defend his freedom to die by landing on his head. 

Indeed it is.  Sad Irony.