{"id":1099,"date":"2010-06-10T20:55:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-10T20:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2010\/06\/10\/bring-back-helmet-law"},"modified":"2010-06-10T20:55:00","modified_gmt":"2010-06-10T20:55:00","slug":"bring-back-helmet-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=1099","title":{"rendered":"Bring back helmet law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

http:\/\/www.amarillo.com\/stories\/061010\/new_motorcycle.shtml<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Astounding.<\/p>\n

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 Then the Legislature repealed it some years back, knuckling under the ethos that Texans are so independent that we don’t need the state to dictate how to protect ourselves … from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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

State law does require minors to wear them. Motorcyclists without helmets must have accident insurance.<\/p>\n

For my money, that’s not enough protection.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading Bring back helmet law<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}