Interesting story from WALL STREET JOURNAL
Ron
---------------------------------------
Risky Riders Touting Freedom,
Bikers Take Aim At Helmet Laws Fatality Rates Are Increasing As Campaign succeeds;
Manufacturers Bow Out
Sputnik Travels to 39 States
By KAREN LUNDEGAARD
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 30, 2004 10:07 p.m.; Page A1
Sputnik isn't a typical lobbyist. He has "FREE" tattooed across his forehead, and he wears his hair in a Mohawk. Five earrings dangle from his left ear. But statehouse veterans in Texas have taken the 66-year-old motorcycle activist seriously ever since he led a successful campaign in 1997 to repeal that state's mandatory helmet law.
Sputnik (his legal name) and other unlikely biker-lobbyists like him are fighting, state-by-state, for what they see as freedom on the road. Many other people see it as an assault on safety and common sense.
Over nearly three decades, bikers have pushed successfully to weaken or eliminate helmet laws in 29 states. Most of that activity came in the 1970s, but recently, bikers have been active again. Since 1997, five states, including Texas, have repealed laws requiring all motorcycle riders to wear helmets. The other four are Florida -- which, like Texas, is a major biker haven -- and Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Arkansas. Federal statistics show that, on average, in the years after the recent legislative changes, helmet use dropped, and motorcycle deaths increased.
[sputnik]
That isn't slowing Sputnik, however. He has traveled to 39 states in recent years to motivate bikers with what he calls his "Five Steps to Freedom," a primer that begins with registering leather-clad voters and aims ultimately at putting them in office. At least four states -- Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina and Tennessee -- came close to repealing helmet laws this year, and the bikers say they are revving up to try again.
"We've learned the game so well that now we're making the rules," James "Doc" Reichenbach, a bearded biker-lobbyist from Florida, boasted at a motorcyclists' rights conference held in Oklahoma City in May, one of several such gatherings held each year around the country.
Many bikers complain that helmets make it harder to see and hear and that they are too hot in the summer. Some motorcyclists also argue that researchers manipulate statistics to show that helmets save lives. Demanding that the choice should be theirs, biker-lobbyists have changed lawmakers' minds by mobilizing large numbers of fellow enthusiasts focused on this narrow issue and willing to make phone calls, write letters and monitor statehouse votes.
All told, 20 states and the District of Columbia have laws requiring helmets for all riders. Some of the other 30 require them for young or inexperienced riders, or people who lack sufficient insurance -- but otherwise leave the choice to riders. By contrast, all states except New Hampshire require use of car seatbelts.
To some, the retreat from helmet requirements, led by a vocal minority of riders, defies logic. John Morris, head of the trauma center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., says he sees "on a regular basis individuals who don't go home because they didn't wear a helmet." But until recently, doctors groups hadn't made a priority of countering the increasingly savvy biker-activists. For varying reasons, a range of constituencies that might be expected to oppose the helmet-free bikers haven't done so very aggressively, or at all.
Congress, spurred by the bikers, barred the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 1998 from lobbying state legislatures on any topic. Among the motorcyclists' champions on Capitol Hill was retiring Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Colorado Republican and motorcycle aficionado. The bikers acted in response to a video the safety agency was distributing to states called "Without Helmet Laws, We All Pay the Price." The title referred in part to the fact that injured bikers without much insurance often end up on Medicaid, while dependents of those who are killed in crashes can also consume public resources.
INCREASING DANGER
After repeal of mandatory helmet laws,the average annual rate of deaths per 10,000 motorcycles has risen.
State Year Repealed Two-Year Average Before Repeal Average Since, Through 2003 Pct. Change
Arkansas 1997 11.34 11.87 4.70%
Florida 2000 7.38 8.94 21.1
Kentucky 1998 6.38 9.9 55.2
Louisiana 1999* 6.79 12.45 83.5
Texas 1997 8.46 10.95 29.5
*Mandatory helmet law reinstated in 2004
Sources: Wall Street Journal analysis of statistics from Federal Highway Administration and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
In the private sector, the insurance industry's lobbying arm, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, says it doesn't do very much about motorcycle helmets because of its small size. It has a budget of only $1.5 million and a staff of eight. Its president, Judith Lee Stone, says they can't "just hop on a plane and go where everybody asks us." The industry's much larger, better-funded research body, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, is prevented from lobbying by its bylaws. Both the insurance institute and NHTSA say they will testify before state legislatures, but only if asked. They are rarely asked to address helmet issues.
Motorcycle manufacturers tiptoe around the debate. Harley Davidson Inc., the brand most popular with activists, and Honda Motor Co., both say they encourage riders to wear helmets. But the manufacturers add that it should be up to the consumer to make the choice. Bob Klein, a Harley spokesman, says this position doesn't reflect a fear of alienating riders who oppose helmets. Instead, he says, "We firmly believe in the fact that riders should be able to exercise their own best judgment."
The helmet debate doesn't have a victims group similar to Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, and trauma surgeons are only now mobilizing in earnest. The Journal of the American College of Surgeons, which is sent to the group's 60,000 members, published an editorial in its August issue titled, "Motorcycle Helmet Laws: Every Surgeon's Responsibility." M. Margaret Knudson, one of the authors and chair of the group's committee on injury prevention, says in an interview that doctors have a "duty, really, to make our senators and congressman aware of the value of wearing a helmet."
Death Rates
The statistical case for helmet laws seems solid, according to analysis of government figures. In each state that recently repealed its mandatory helmet law, motorcycle deaths have more than doubled, sometimes in as short a span as three years. Motorcycle use has also increased, although not as much. To account for increased use, The Wall Street Journal looked at the change in motorcycle fatalities per 10,000 registered motorcycles.
In the six years since Texas repealed its law in 1997, the annual rate has jumped nearly 30%, to an average 10.95 deaths per 10,000 registered motorcycles, compared with an average of 8.46 deaths for the two years prior to the repeal. In Kentucky, the average rate has jumped to 9.9 in the five years since its 1998 repeal, up 55% compared with the average for the two years before.
In Florida, in the three years since repeal, the rate is up 21%, to 8.94, compared with the two-year average prior to the repeal. Last year, 358 motorcyclists died in Florida. That is just 10 fewer deaths than occurred in California, the largest motorcycling state, which has 43% more registered motorcycles than Florida. California has a mandatory helmet law.
Nationally, motorcycle deaths rose 12% in 2003, to 3,661. That is the sixth straight year motorcycle deaths have risen. Twelve percent is the largest annual increase since 1988. The national fatality rate increased 4.4%, to 6.82 deaths per 10,000 motorcycles, the highest such figure since 1990. That rate is four-and-a-half times as high as the auto-fatality rate.
The jump in motorcycle deaths in 2003 came in a year when total highway fatalities dropped, federal statistics show. Alcohol-related fatalities fell 3%, to 17,013, and deaths of passengers not wearing seatbelts fell 6.5%, to 18,019. Federal officials attribute those declines to states passing tougher seatbelt and drunk-driving laws.
Ron
---------------------------------------
Risky Riders Touting Freedom,
Bikers Take Aim At Helmet Laws Fatality Rates Are Increasing As Campaign succeeds;
Manufacturers Bow Out
Sputnik Travels to 39 States
By KAREN LUNDEGAARD
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 30, 2004 10:07 p.m.; Page A1
Sputnik isn't a typical lobbyist. He has "FREE" tattooed across his forehead, and he wears his hair in a Mohawk. Five earrings dangle from his left ear. But statehouse veterans in Texas have taken the 66-year-old motorcycle activist seriously ever since he led a successful campaign in 1997 to repeal that state's mandatory helmet law.
Sputnik (his legal name) and other unlikely biker-lobbyists like him are fighting, state-by-state, for what they see as freedom on the road. Many other people see it as an assault on safety and common sense.
Over nearly three decades, bikers have pushed successfully to weaken or eliminate helmet laws in 29 states. Most of that activity came in the 1970s, but recently, bikers have been active again. Since 1997, five states, including Texas, have repealed laws requiring all motorcycle riders to wear helmets. The other four are Florida -- which, like Texas, is a major biker haven -- and Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Arkansas. Federal statistics show that, on average, in the years after the recent legislative changes, helmet use dropped, and motorcycle deaths increased.
[sputnik]
That isn't slowing Sputnik, however. He has traveled to 39 states in recent years to motivate bikers with what he calls his "Five Steps to Freedom," a primer that begins with registering leather-clad voters and aims ultimately at putting them in office. At least four states -- Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina and Tennessee -- came close to repealing helmet laws this year, and the bikers say they are revving up to try again.
"We've learned the game so well that now we're making the rules," James "Doc" Reichenbach, a bearded biker-lobbyist from Florida, boasted at a motorcyclists' rights conference held in Oklahoma City in May, one of several such gatherings held each year around the country.
Many bikers complain that helmets make it harder to see and hear and that they are too hot in the summer. Some motorcyclists also argue that researchers manipulate statistics to show that helmets save lives. Demanding that the choice should be theirs, biker-lobbyists have changed lawmakers' minds by mobilizing large numbers of fellow enthusiasts focused on this narrow issue and willing to make phone calls, write letters and monitor statehouse votes.
All told, 20 states and the District of Columbia have laws requiring helmets for all riders. Some of the other 30 require them for young or inexperienced riders, or people who lack sufficient insurance -- but otherwise leave the choice to riders. By contrast, all states except New Hampshire require use of car seatbelts.
To some, the retreat from helmet requirements, led by a vocal minority of riders, defies logic. John Morris, head of the trauma center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., says he sees "on a regular basis individuals who don't go home because they didn't wear a helmet." But until recently, doctors groups hadn't made a priority of countering the increasingly savvy biker-activists. For varying reasons, a range of constituencies that might be expected to oppose the helmet-free bikers haven't done so very aggressively, or at all.
Congress, spurred by the bikers, barred the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 1998 from lobbying state legislatures on any topic. Among the motorcyclists' champions on Capitol Hill was retiring Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Colorado Republican and motorcycle aficionado. The bikers acted in response to a video the safety agency was distributing to states called "Without Helmet Laws, We All Pay the Price." The title referred in part to the fact that injured bikers without much insurance often end up on Medicaid, while dependents of those who are killed in crashes can also consume public resources.
INCREASING DANGER
After repeal of mandatory helmet laws,the average annual rate of deaths per 10,000 motorcycles has risen.
State Year Repealed Two-Year Average Before Repeal Average Since, Through 2003 Pct. Change
Arkansas 1997 11.34 11.87 4.70%
Florida 2000 7.38 8.94 21.1
Kentucky 1998 6.38 9.9 55.2
Louisiana 1999* 6.79 12.45 83.5
Texas 1997 8.46 10.95 29.5
*Mandatory helmet law reinstated in 2004
Sources: Wall Street Journal analysis of statistics from Federal Highway Administration and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
In the private sector, the insurance industry's lobbying arm, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, says it doesn't do very much about motorcycle helmets because of its small size. It has a budget of only $1.5 million and a staff of eight. Its president, Judith Lee Stone, says they can't "just hop on a plane and go where everybody asks us." The industry's much larger, better-funded research body, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, is prevented from lobbying by its bylaws. Both the insurance institute and NHTSA say they will testify before state legislatures, but only if asked. They are rarely asked to address helmet issues.
Motorcycle manufacturers tiptoe around the debate. Harley Davidson Inc., the brand most popular with activists, and Honda Motor Co., both say they encourage riders to wear helmets. But the manufacturers add that it should be up to the consumer to make the choice. Bob Klein, a Harley spokesman, says this position doesn't reflect a fear of alienating riders who oppose helmets. Instead, he says, "We firmly believe in the fact that riders should be able to exercise their own best judgment."
The helmet debate doesn't have a victims group similar to Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, and trauma surgeons are only now mobilizing in earnest. The Journal of the American College of Surgeons, which is sent to the group's 60,000 members, published an editorial in its August issue titled, "Motorcycle Helmet Laws: Every Surgeon's Responsibility." M. Margaret Knudson, one of the authors and chair of the group's committee on injury prevention, says in an interview that doctors have a "duty, really, to make our senators and congressman aware of the value of wearing a helmet."
Death Rates
The statistical case for helmet laws seems solid, according to analysis of government figures. In each state that recently repealed its mandatory helmet law, motorcycle deaths have more than doubled, sometimes in as short a span as three years. Motorcycle use has also increased, although not as much. To account for increased use, The Wall Street Journal looked at the change in motorcycle fatalities per 10,000 registered motorcycles.
In the six years since Texas repealed its law in 1997, the annual rate has jumped nearly 30%, to an average 10.95 deaths per 10,000 registered motorcycles, compared with an average of 8.46 deaths for the two years prior to the repeal. In Kentucky, the average rate has jumped to 9.9 in the five years since its 1998 repeal, up 55% compared with the average for the two years before.
In Florida, in the three years since repeal, the rate is up 21%, to 8.94, compared with the two-year average prior to the repeal. Last year, 358 motorcyclists died in Florida. That is just 10 fewer deaths than occurred in California, the largest motorcycling state, which has 43% more registered motorcycles than Florida. California has a mandatory helmet law.
Nationally, motorcycle deaths rose 12% in 2003, to 3,661. That is the sixth straight year motorcycle deaths have risen. Twelve percent is the largest annual increase since 1988. The national fatality rate increased 4.4%, to 6.82 deaths per 10,000 motorcycles, the highest such figure since 1990. That rate is four-and-a-half times as high as the auto-fatality rate.
The jump in motorcycle deaths in 2003 came in a year when total highway fatalities dropped, federal statistics show. Alcohol-related fatalities fell 3%, to 17,013, and deaths of passengers not wearing seatbelts fell 6.5%, to 18,019. Federal officials attribute those declines to states passing tougher seatbelt and drunk-driving laws.
