(TN) New Bill Would Allow Motorcyclists to Ride Helmet-Free

[The Straight Story]

(Memphis) – Tennessee could be joining other states around the nation that allow motorcyclists to not wear helmets when they ride.

A new bill is on its way through committees that would allow riders 21 and older to ride free if they choose.

Motorcyclists, like Bob Hunt, say it should be the their choice when it comes strapping on a helmet for a ride.

“I’m open to it if someone wants to ride that way and take that chance. Its kind of up to them,” he said.

Hunt says even he from time to time will ride helmet-free with his hair in the wind in places like Arkansas where there are no helmet laws.

http://wreg.com/2013/03/14/new-bill-would-allow-motorcyclists-to-ride-helmet-free/

[Initech]

1. As Jerry Seinfeld said: you get in an accident, that helmet is wearing YOU for protection!

[MADem]

2. What will they call the bill? The Darwin Bill or the Gary Busey bill? nt

[SharonAnn]

15. It should be called "The Organ Donor" bill

[MADem]

28. Touche~!! nt

[XemaSab]

3. Bad idea

I was in an accident last year involving a motorcycle up in the Sierra.

Even though the guy lay the bike down in the way that motorcycle riders are trained to do, if he hadn't been wearing a helmet, it would have been a fatal accident.

As it was, he had a concussion and a ruptured spleen, and he had to take a ride in the helicopter to Reno.

[Fumesucker]

27. Motorcycle riders are not "trained" to "lay the bike down"

Once you and the bike are down and sliding you have no control over where either you or it goes whatsoever. A sliding motorcycle and/or rider will go a remarkably long way on inertia alone. Upright on the two wheels a good motorcycle with a competent rider will out-stop most cars and match them for cornering and evasive ability.

Rubber has a far higher coefficient of friction than does metal, the only control you have on a motorcycle is through those two patches of rubber smaller than the palm of your hand that are touching the road.

[11 Bravo]

33. I was a weekend moto-cross rider well into my 30's. One of the first things I learned ...

way back as a teenage rider, was that "laying the bike down" was WAY preferable to performing the dreaded "endo".

[Fumesucker]

35. I thought we were referring to street bikes?

Lay it down on asphalt and you'll think that slide will *never* stop, it's really different than dirt riding.

In racing if you ain't crashing you ain't trying, that doesn't work so well when playing tag with SUVs and eighteen wheelers.

[LisaL]

4. Well, there is a shortage of organ donors.

[The Straight Story]

8. Might help with feeding zombies as well (nt)

[Fawke Em]

5. Look at it this way, if it passes then Tennessee will turn back to blue since

most of the stupid people will either be dead or on life support.

(Sorry... I hope karma doesn't get me for this. I live in Tennessee and would like to see more intelligent people elected to our state offices. )

[sadbear]

37. Texas repealed it's helmet law about 15 years ago

And we're turning purple.

But seriously, I personally knew 4 men who died in motorcycle accidents after taking their helmets off.

I don't know the actual statistics, but my personal experience tells me survivability dramatically drops when you're not wearing a helmet.

[Electric Monk]

6. I'd be ok with that if they had to carry extra insurance to cover traumatic brain injury care

[LadyHawkAZ]

9. The helmet law in Florida does that

Seems reasonable.

[snooper2]

12. In Texas we have to have proof of personal health insurance to ride without a helmet..

[Orrex]

7. There's nothing like the feel of wind in your hair

Except maybe the feeling of asphalt in your hippocampus.

[LadyHawkAZ]

10. There's also nothing like the feel of trying to get a brush through that hair

after you've been on a ride and it's damn near dreadlocked from the wind.

Masochism, I tell ya.

[KT2000]

11. Will everyone's insurance rates go up

to cover the idiots who suffer brain damage?

[sadbear]

38. Or their funeral costs?

[spanone]

13. my state: repug house, repug senate, repug gov. 'nuff said.

[longship]

14. Michigan did this a couple of years ago. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Are they also getting an automatic organ donor card?

[Lint Head]

17. Good. That will thin the herd of stampeding idiots.

[AzSweet]

18. Do ANY of those who responded to this actually ride? n/t

[olddots]

19. I rode for thirty years

Wore a helmet before it was a law in Mass.Also wore gloves and protective gear,people may have called me a wimp but I'm still here and miss people who thought they could beat the ods

[Gravitycollapse]

20. A motorcycle is my only vehicle.

[Electric Monk]

22. Yes, I rode for about 5 years when I was younger, and I always wore a helmet.

Next question?

[Egalitarian Thug]

26. Going on 40 years. Lived in AZ for part of that time and sometimes didn't wear a helmet either.

I'm very lucky.

I also lived in SoCal for a long time and think legal lane splitting is a good idea.

[Soundman]

31. Rode since I was a kid, skid lids suck!

As a kid I started riding off road and wore a helmet. When I started riding on the street I wore no helmet. When I moved to a state that required helmets I learned couple things real fast. They are fatiguing, they take away your sense of hearing in town, and they also take away your peripheral vision, not too mention they are hot. Hate them with a passion.

A guy I worked with had a truck pull out in front of him one morning, he's dead as a dodo. If only he had been wearing a helmet, oh wait, he was.

Not sure how much the data has changed over the years but the last time I had an interest, the data showed that outside of skidding accidents helmets didn't offer much protection after 15 mph impacts.

[Gravitycollapse]

21. It's about maintaining control in adverse conditions.

Like rain or being struck in the face with a bird or large insect.

Although this law does not require full face helmets, it encourages it. Which is a good idea for many more reasons than protecting the well-being of the rider.

[Electric Monk]

23. Hitting a bee with your cheek at 60mph is no fun. Tried it once, then bought a new helmet. nt

[Gravitycollapse]

24. I hit a bumble bee at at least 80 mph with my full face helmet.

Right where my eye would be if it wasn't for the helmet. Sounded like an explosion and I nearly shit myself. But I came away without any damage to my face or eyes.

[Egalitarian Thug]

25. Require an organ donor consent to get a motorcycle license. Solve two problems with one law. n/t

[graham4anything]

29. More collateral have died due to reckless riders, than 100 years worth of collateral drone deaths

Love when those that protest a Nanny state do away with all regulations
yet
Then go and rail against the Clinton's for getting rid of GlassSeagal and blame the world on
him and the next President after President Obama, his wife.

Like the ones who got rid of the speed limit and made it 85 in parts of Texas.

Speed kills
Obesity kills
Wearing no helmets kills
Wearing no seatbelts kills

and normally those reckless get into an accident with someone else, therefore, it directly affects the other person.

Like smoking, 2nd hand deaths because of a reckless motocyclist or a car weaving in and out of traffic, are in effect, MORE important as they are collateral damage.

MORE people a month have died from a wreck caused by a reckless driver in any vehicle,
than in 100 years of drone use(including the years forward as drones haven't been around for 100 years yet.)

Why would anyone want to play frogger with a pothole like those on NY/NJ streets?(and in other states too, potholes are not restricted to those two states.)
There is NO reason not to wear a helmet while riding a bicycle or a motorcycle.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
the above is NOT sarcasm. The paragraph below is

Maybe they should do away with football helmets, and maybe they should do away with the baseball rules about not allowing beanballs, and making helmets illegal.
Yeah, that's the ticket
(sarcasm ONLY on the bottom paragraph)

[Fumesucker]

30. Look at any nation where bicycle riding is seen as transportation rather than recreation

The Netherlands for instance is the most bicycle using nation in the western world, practically no one wears a bicycle helmet, even children.

And yet they have single payer medical, everyone is covered. Go figure.

[graham4anything]

32. Of course the same Damn the Nannies RWACs forget the bikers are skinny & have secure lanes

So it goes without saying that the video above is 100% unapplicable, to say New Jersey
or Interstate 10 where you have cars, vans, 18 wheelers etc.

NYC is getting more and more bike lanes, however, the same nuts who complain in NYC about everything The Great Equalizer does, complain about that while another day another bike rider (skinny of course) gets hit by an opening door or while recklessly going through red lights playing Frogger.

The Netherlands also have wellness as a rule, and free insurance for everyone
so again, there is no comparison.

Of course, when one practices wellness 24/7/365 and doesn't suicidally guzzle 1560 sugar rush calories in a 90 minute movie, doesn't cost the health care very much money now does it?

More power to Bill and Hillary and The Great Equalizer, Meek Mike, and Joe Biden and Gabbie Giffords.

Because we are not the Netherlands, who love their nanny state by living longer and better
than those who engulf a ton of artificial butter and 1560 calories in a 90 minute movie,
then of course, same people can't ride a bike anyhow.

What do you notice about everyone there? They are SKINNY and fit.

and they proudly pay for their potholes to be fixed, and have higher taxes, but a much better health care.

[Fumesucker]

34. The Netherlands wasn't always a bicycle riding nation, not to the extent they are now

It was a conscious decision to move away from cars and toward bikes.

And the Dutch also have cars, 18 wheelers and so forth, just like we do here in the US but the single biggest difference is they don't worship the guilder or the Euro the way we do the almighty dollar.

The very best way to assure that the average American never uses a bike for everyday transportation is to mandate helmets for adults, people will tolerate helmets for recreational riding, but for commuting they are a deal breaker for the great majority of adults. I'm a regular rider and at anything beyond very mild temperatures you arrive at your destination looking and feeling like you dunked your head in a bucketful of warm sweat.

[graham4anything]

39. I agree, we should get rid of gas guzzling vans/trucks/SUVs. They weren't needed in the 60s.

(excepting of course those with handicaps).

[NaturalHigh]

36. This will raise the collective IQ in a generation or two.