Bring back helmet law

http://www.amarillo.com/stories/061010/new_motorcycle.shtml

Helmets save lives. They reduce the rate of traumatic head injury. They can reduce the number of people disabled fully — and permanently. And yet the state of Texas doesn’t require all motorcyclists to wear them.

Astounding.

Texas used to have such a law. Then the Legislature repealed it some years back, knuckling under the ethos that Texans are so independent that we don’t need the state to dictate how to protect ourselves … from ourselves.

I remember one guy who scolded me for pitching a fit over the Legislature’s repeal of the helmet law. I was living in Jefferson County at the time. This guy lived in neighboring Orange County. His argument was he had the right as an American and a Texan to “feel the wind in my hair” while riding his motorcycle. Those darn helmets restricted that feeling of freedom, he said. He also argued that helmets actually posed a greater danger than riding without them. Why? They restricted his field of vision and his neck-and-shoulder mobility.

I don’t know whatever happened to that fellow. I trust he’s still with us, riding his motorcycle without a helmet.

But the link to the story at the top of this post noted that an 18-year-old Amarillo man, Aaron Carter, is alive today precisely because of the helmet he was wearing. “It had to be the full-face helmet,” said Amarillo Police Sgt. Steve Davis in marveling how the young man survived the crash.

State law does require minors to wear them. Motorcyclists without helmets must have accident insurance.

For my money, that’s not enough protection.