Helmet Laws Suck

It is pretty hard to run up medical bills when you are dead.

 

Well hell don't stop there. Want to save medical cost then outlaw horses. Horse accidents are greater than mc accidents so I was told. Searching the web kind of hints that way.

a blurb:
"new figures produced by surveying Stoke Mandeville, Oswestry and Odstock spinal units and by searching the internet to determine their frequency and distribution. Head injuries outnumber spinal injuries by five to one. In contrast to other sporting accidents, there are more lumbar and thoracic than cervical injuries and more women are injured than men (though this may just be a reflection of the fact that there are more women riders than men). Of all horse riding activities, jumping is most likely to produce a spinal injury.

Injuries are an inevitable consequence of horse riding since the rider's head may be poised up to 4 m (13 feet) from the ground and the horse travels at a speed of up to 65 km/h (40 mph). The horse rider is trying to control an animal, which is less intelligent than a dog though, under some circumstances, the horse may be more intelligent than the rider! Although numerically few, catastrophic injuries to the brain and spinal cord from horse riding giving rise to paralysis have attracted considerable attention. The injuries to the spinal column and the injuries to the spinal cord are unremarkable. "

Some riders seem the same though.

Motorcycling is dangerous. So are other things in the world. Helmet or no helmet is going to change that. Freedom of choice is our American way isn't it? It's just a shame so many die from it by their own hands.

 

Oh, I wasn't aware that vehicle accidents increased someone's insurance rates for sitting on their couch.

Motorcycles are 3% of the registered vehicles in the USA
They account for 13% of fatality accidents
The use of a helmet is estimated to be 37% effective in a fatal crash.

Honestly, I would have thought wearing a helmet, the odds of surviving would have been higher than 37%.

Fact is insurance is a for profit business and it is built in to their calculations to cover the accidents. They are going to make a profit and give themselves raises. You could make it 100% required to wear a helmet, armor, boots and nothing above 100cc engines and your rates would never come down. This is just how they justify raising rates. Take away this reason and they'll come up with another. The limits on motorcycle coverage are low anyway. The insurance companies aren't paying out that much compared to other vehicles.

 

The use of a helmet is estimated to be 37% effective in a fatal crash.
Surely a helmet would be 0% effective in a FATAL crash?

 

Maybe it makes you 37 percent more dead........

 

I hope the episode you missed wasn't the one where she will star in the remake of Easy Rider.

 

oops!:redface:

 

Got your point though. Personally I think an accident that's gonna kill you will do so helmet or no helmet. The difference is, if you live, will you be brain damaged or not? I will agree with Bubba Zanetti on one of the threads where he says the government should just pass the law and people will come round to it. South Africans (who are generally a pretty lawless bunch) all wear helmets. It's the law, it makes sense, so we do it.

 

Ok, that makes one South Arfican and one Australian who get my point. why the fuck cant my fellow Americans. even the outlaws in Mad Max wear full face helmets!

And you South Africans do get pretty wild. The crime rate in joburg is something.

BZ

 

It is, a helmet reduces injury by 67 percent.

i think you have a ABATE statistic.

BZ

 

Let me ask you something milo30. Who the f*ck in his right mind would run an insurance company, or any other business for that matter, at a loss, or at little or no profit? Just asking!

 

I used to go to non injury property damage accidents and fill out a check box type report, issue a ticket then go for a cup of mud at the local Timmies.

I went to and injury accident, filled out a check box type report, write a ticket, take photographs, take statements from witnesses and go to the local Timmies for a cup of joe.

I go to a fatal accident, call out the Fire Department to use their rigs to protect the scene for everyone there assisting in the investigation. Most likely I shut the highway down so the scene remains safe to investigate. So all those commercial vehicles trying to get produce to the market on time, park somewhere which adds to the cost of product. I delay people getting to work so there is a cost to employers who pass it onto the public in some manner. Call the coroner's office, call the body removal service. They take photos, I take photos, they take statements, I take statements. We close the highway for hours. I call out the Accident Reconstructionist to decipher marks and gouges. I sometimes call an engineer to measure the road properly. I review signs, trees, road surfaces. I tell all the stupid people asking me " Was there anyone hurt?" "No lady. A couple dead but no one hurt." Dumb stupid bitch anyways.

I then write hours of reports. I compare notes with the coroner. I do a Next of Kin Notification if local or arrange it to be done by another agency. I meet with the family usually a few hours later and try to explain to them why. I write more reports. I write letters to lawyers, insurance companies, government agencies and the Coroners Service. I discuss ways we the public can spend even more of our tax money improving roads to try to avoid some short sighted moron from killing one's self by not buckling up or wearing protective gear.

I discuss matter with Crown Counsel (same as the DA) I go to Coroners Inquiries and Inquests and give evidence. I sometimes go to Criminal Court to give evidence. I manage my file that is now about1 inch thick from paperwork that I have prepared.

Two years later, once I have received all the reports from the Accident Reconstructionist, the Coroners Service, the judiciary and every fucking shark toothed lawyer out there trying to sue the Department of Highways for using the wrong shade of yellow in their line paint, or the poor teenager boy who sold the dumb fuck driving like and idiot without proper gear be it seat belts or helmet, the gasoline he put into his vehicle.

I go home at night and try to watch TV or listen to music, drink a beer or two to try to forget the hell I see family and friends of the dead person, go through. I lie to my wife when she asks me how my day was and I tell her "Oh it wasn't bad."

Then there are all the support staff in the Police department, Coroners Service, Court Registries and every other damned agency now involved in this matter only because it is a death.

BTW. I have never in my 25 years of policing, ever pulled a dead body out of a seat belt. The one fatal motorcycle accident I went to, the guy on the crotch rocket was estimated to be doing about 150 MPH, and hit concrete no post barriers. Didn't really matter in that case.

Yup. It should be your choice if you wear a helmet. It should be your choice that so much of my money is wasted needlessly because you, you fuggen pea brain, decided not to reduce or eliminate totally the chances of death by wearing a helmet or wearing a seat belt.

Ride safe, ride with courtesy and ride like your life depends on it cause it does. See you all for a beer sometime....I can only hope.

 

BTW....if some people wore condoms, we would not need helmet laws.

 

Apparently, everybody currently in Congress and the White House. Just sayin'...

 

Sorry if I'm off topic here, but are you talking about insurance that is compulsory? and the guys are making a profit out of you? If so then you guys are fighting the wrong battle.

 

You may mandate all you want, but when the rider dies from injury, or suffers a disabling injury, the rest of the general public is still on the hook for keeping the dead moron's kids in Cheerios and J. Crew sweaters, as well as providing retraining for the missus who is likely underpaid/underemployed and in no financial position to take care of a family. Furthermore, after what seems like a lifetime dealing w/ underinsured non seatbelt wearing drivers, and beanie helmet wearing riders through the ER, I can tell you that the ones that aren't adequately insured usually don't pay the bill, regardless of the legal obligation to do so.

 

Seatbelts here are mandated. Helmets, boots, gloves, ect. no. See a reasonably comprehensive overview of seat belt wear law in US, AUS and UK in Wiki.

Our ER's and I assume you are familiar with those is some American cities deal more in gunshot wounds and other truma than bike injuries.

Better to be mandated than not IMO. No mandate or proof of finiancial responsibility=no compensation.


The latest scam is the pre-pay. Many lawyers here specialize. Some are PI lawyers. (PI is Personal Injury) These dudes get usually a third of any settlement and somtimes more. The work in done as a contingency. The latest "deal " is the pre-pay. The lawyers figure out using all the information at hand, what the payout might be for an injury, fatality, or whatever. Instant bucks for the grieving widow, medical bills ect., based on anticipated payout. Then when the real payout acually happens, the lawyers get all the marbles less the instant bucks.

Do you work in an ER or do you watch ER on the telly? It ran about nine years as I recall.