Talk Story
Motorcycle helmets again
escape legislative actionONE OF THE bills that zipped through the Legislature this year levies a surcharge on the fines levied against motor-vehicle operators for speeding, drunken driving, failing to buckle up or leaving the scene of an accident.
Assuming the governor signs the bill, the extra fines will fund a program to help people who have suffered spine or brain injuries.
That's all well and good, but I've always wondered whether our Legislature is collectively brain injured when I see people zipping around our highways bareheaded on motorcycles and scooters.
There is nothing but peer pressure stopping any sane person from putting on a helmet before taking to the roads, but many riders don't. Many, however, will vigorously defend their freedom to become another brain-injury statistic by attacking anyone who raises the issue.
Having written on this subject in the past, I know I'm just asking for it. So be it.
HAWAII actually does have a helmet law. It says: "No person less than eighteen years of age shall operate or ride as a passenger on a motorcycle or motor scooter on any highway in the State unless the person wears a safety helmet securely fastened with a chin strap."
Other requirements include wearing "safety glasses, goggles, or a face shield" if the bike doesn't have a windshield. Moreover, the state director of transportation -- the guy who is now preoccupied with dismantling the traffic camera fiasco -- could require "other protective devices, other than a safety helmet."
That's right. Our "helmet law" prohibits the state from requiring helmets. Makes you wonder who wrote this thing.
So, in a state where it's illegal to drive a 5,000-pound, air-bag-equipped car without a safety belt, where it's considered too dangerous to sell stadium-goers bottles of water unless the caps are removed and where security guards screen graduation leis on a "case-by-case basis," it's perfectly OK to rocket around the highways helmetless.
There are about 17,000 motorcycles registered statewide, 11,747 on Oahu. According to Morgan Keene, coordinator of motorcycle safety courses in the University of Hawaii community college system, another 30 percent aren't registered and are operated illegally.
Part of the reason for that, it appears, is that the premiums for the insurance required before registering a motorcycle can run to thousands of dollars a year.
According to the Helmet Law Defense League, wearing a motorcycle helmet is more dangerous than not wearing one. "In addition to all the commonly accepted problems -- vision and hearing impairment, heat retention, and others -- the weight and design of most of the traditionally accepted helmet styles make them a serious threat to the neck, particularly a young neck," they say.
Better to suffer a brain injury than break your neck, I suppose.
According to testimony on the new bill, about 1,200 people a year are treated for brain and spinal injuries in Hawaii and half of those injuries have been attributed to traffic accidents. The total economic cost to the state of Hawaii of head injuries is $89 million a year. The medical costs alone are $14 million.
Motorcyclists, of course, make up only a small fraction of those injuries. However, since the motorcycle helmet is specifically designed to reduce head injuries, requiring them for all riders would appear to be a no-brainer. Twenty other states do, while 26 others have age requirements. Four have no helmet requirement whatsoever.
It worries Hawaii's anti-helmet-law people that there's already a law on the books. They realize lawmakers could easily amend it to include adults. Therefore, HLDL says, "We think it is very, very important that motorcyclists complain, early and often. The price of freedom is, after all, eternal vigilance."
And a program to help people who suffer motorcycle accident head injuries will now be paid by people who screw up driving their cars.
Go figgah.
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.