Life or Freedom

Life or Freedom?

A motorcycle, ridden by a rider not wearing a helmet, and a sport utility vehicle (SUV) collide at 55 miles per hour. Who has a better chance of walking away from the accident? "Most motorcycle-related deaths involve head injury and motorcycle helmets significantly reduce the risk of death attributable to head injury" (Rowland, Rivara, Salzburg, Soderburg, Maier, Koepsell , 1996). Even though motorcycle enthusiasts believe, they should have the right to decide whether they should wear a helmet, helmets should be worn when riding a motorcycle because they reduce the risk of head injury if in an accident and they decrease the likelihood of death.

Those who ride motorcycles believe they should have the right to decide whether they should wear a helmet. Bikers insist that mandatory helmet laws are an infringement of their rights. Motorcycle riders strongly believe that the best way to promote motorcycle safety is through educating both riders and automobile drivers to be cautious when riding or when around motorcycles. Those who oppose mandatory helmet laws also have much to say about how wearing a helmet can actually cause an accident. For instance, motorcycle enthusiasts argue that helmets limit their peripheral vision. Members of American Bikers Aiming Towards Education (ABATE) say that a helmet restricts a rider's vision from 140 to 120 degrees in his or her field of vision (Weller, Chandler, 1989). Another example of how motorcyclists say that a helmet can cause an accident is that a helmet causes fatigue. Wearing one causes the inside of a helmet to reach temperatures of 130 degrees Fahrenheit (Weller, Chandler, 1989). The heat inside the helmet causes the rider to sweat and become tired. The sweat also blurs the rider's vision. Although there is no proven statistics that wearing a helmet can cause an accident, these and other examples not stated in this essay, have influenced many states to repeal mandatory helmet laws.

Over the past decade, many states have rolled back on mandatory helmet laws making it only a partial law that riders under the age of 18 are required to wear a helmet. Even though bikers argue that they should have the right to choose to wear a helmet or not, helmets should be worn when riding a motorcycle because they reduce the risk of head injury if an accident occurs. A helmet is a piece of safety equipment designed to protect a rider against facial and head injuries. "Unhelmeted riders are two times more likely to incur a head injury of any type and are at least three times more likely to incur a fatal head injury" (Weller, Chandler, 1989). The chances of a head injury, if involved in an accident, are greatly reduced if a helmet is worn.

Another example that shows that helmets reduce the risk of head injury if in an accident is through a statewide study conducted in Washington in 1989. "Although unhelmeted motorcyclists were only slightly more likely to be hospitalized after a crash for any injury sustained, unhelmeted riders were nearly three times more likely to have sustained head injuries and almost four times more likely to have suffered severe to critical head injuries. Unhelmeted motorcyclists had a 63% higher death rate" (Rowland, et al., 1996). This study showed how more unhelmeted riders involved in an accident sustained head injuries and died than those that wore helmets.

The most important reason helmets should be worn when riding a motorcycle is because they decrease the likelihood of death. "In crashes of comparable severity, the death rate of unhelmeted crashes exceeds the crash rate of helmeted riders by 52 percent" (Watson, Zador, and Wilks, 1981). This statistic shows how much of a percentage of riders, involved in fatal accidents, died because they were not wearing a helmet.

Another example that shows that helmets can decrease the likelihood of death is the fatality rate of bikers that did