While bikers may fight among themselves over the rights and wrongs of mandatory motorcycle helmet laws, the general public in Michigan as well as the AAA feels the requirement should stay on the books.
What concerns AAA Michigan is a bill introduced in Michigan’s State legislature, House Bill 4008 which would allow individuals who are 21 years of age or older to ride without a helmet if they have a $20,000 medical policy in place.
Also, Senate Bill 291 would allow individuals 21 years of age or older to ride without a helmet if they have had their motorcycle endorsement for two or more years, or passed a motorcycle safety course.
Even as Michigan AAA strongly opposes the legislation recently introduced in both the Michigan Senate and the House, they note if either were approved, Michigan’s nearly four-decade old mandatory motorcycle helmet law would be repealed.
“We strongly oppose both bills,” said Jack Peet, AAA Michigan Traffic Safety Manager. “$20,000 in medical coverage would barely touch the amount of medical costs resulting from these types of motorcycle accidents. These proposals will result in increased motorcycle fatalities and injuries and higher costs for all motorists.”
And it appears the general public agrees with the AAA Michigan.
A new spring poll of some 600 likely Michigan voters statewide by Marketing Research Group (MRG), Inc. of Lansing shows that 81 percent of the state’s residents believe the current mandatory helmet law should be maintained. Only sixteen percent said Michigan motorcycle riders should not be required to wear a helmet.
Surveys of AAA Michigan members over many years also confirm ongoing, overwhelming support for the law. In this year’s member survey, 90 percent favored keeping the helmet law while only 10 percent opposed it.
Aside from this apparent public support for the law, AAA Michigan are concerned over the efforts made every year to repeal the state’s mandatory helmet law. This is done, AAA Michigan has said, ‘without regard for the common good or the will of the public’.
An Office of Highway Safety Planning analysis found that a repeal of the law would result in at least 30 additional motorcycle fatalities each year, along with 127 more incapacitating injuries and $129 million in additional economic costs to citizens.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that in the three years after Florida’s repeal of its mandatory helmet law there was an 81 percent increase in fatalities. Another study found that fatalities grew by more than 50 percent in Kentucky and 100 percent in Louisiana after those states struck down mandatory helmet laws.
Those in favor of mandatory helmet laws feel motorcycle crashes account for a disproportionate share of money paid out of the Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association (MCCA), a fund which is supported by a surcharge on every auto insurance policy in the state. While motorcyclists represent two percent of the assessment paid into the MCCA, they account for five percent of the money paid out. They also represent 7.3 percent of all claims reported to the MCCA.
Krazy Biker Katz would like to add a statistic supplied by ABATE of Florida. The State of Florida has no mandatory helmet law for anyone over the age of 21 providing they have the proper medical insurance in place. 53% of all motorcycle fatalities in Florida are to motorcyclists wearing helmets. That means 47% of the fatalities were not wearing helmets. This statistic would suggest the possibility that wearing a helmet might give the rider a false sense of security whereby they may take chances they might otherwise not take had they not been wearing a helmet. Not wearing a helmet tends to make the rider more cautious while traversing the highways of the state.
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