Helmet Law History & Facts by Lee Jordan March 30, 1998 In 1968 the Federal Department of Transportation (DOT) informed each of the United States that highway funds would be withheld unless each state made a helmet law for all motorcyclists. All states except California complied. Shortly afterward, Illinois found their helmet law to be in conflict with their state constitution. Then, around 1990 their court ruled that requiring seat belts was constitutional, which may have changed the way the court could rule in the future on a helmet law issue there. Then, Congress took the power to withhold highway funds away from the DOT in the 1970s and within a few years around half of the states modified their helmet laws to exclude adults. The helmet law in California was changed to include all riders when an Assemblyman convinced the state legislature that unhelmeted riders were costing the state $120 million per year. The state records showed that $16 million per year of public funds were used for all head trauma related medical care, which includes automobile and all other accidents. Later Congress, itself, made the same condition to withhold highway funds from the states unless they made helmet laws for all riders, then removed the condition around 1995. During this period, the state of Maryland made a helmet law for all riders. Next, Arkansas modified their helmet law to exclude adults around 1996. Then in 1997 the motorcyclists in a few of the states that still had a helmet law for adults proposed modifications to their helmet laws that required additional insurance to ride without a helmet. The bills passed in Texas in 1997 and Kentucky in 1998. Now, in 1998, there are similar bills in Florida and California. A side note on this is that in Alabama the insurance industry does not want any mandatory insurance requirements and this type of legislation would most likely not be passed there. The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) is opposing this type of legislation on the grounds that motorcyclists are no more of a public burden than the rest of society, and that such legislation would be discriminatory and not in the best interest of motorcyclists. Judging by messages on the "A Brotherhood Aimed Toward Education" (ABATE) of California E-mail discussion group, around 95 percent of the members who send messages to the mailing list support the proposed change in the helmet law that requires additional insurance, because it appears to be the only way to change the helmet law. There are studies of the effects of helmet laws with conclusions on both sides of the issue. The governor of Arizona had a study made around 1990. The result was that there was no significant reason to make a helmet law for motorcyclists. The same thing happened in South Carolina. There are additional reports with the same conclusion. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has a report that shows an increase in spine injuries when the helmet law was introduced in New York State. They also have other reports that were paid for by supporters of helmet laws, and naturally ignore any problems with helmets and support their use. The NHTSA chooses to discard all information that implies that helmets can injure and kill people. In a letter that I got from the NHTSA, they admitted that the report about New York State showed an increase in spine injuries, but that it was not relevant because the author had not drawn a conclusion on that statistic. I wrote a letter to Federal Senator Feinstein in 1997 asking her to have the NHTSA incorporate a break-away chin strap in their specifications for helmets. The chin strap actually fits around a person's throat and I estimate that if 50 pounds were applied to my throat I would have a serious injury. The chin strap will support around 2,000 pounds. She forwarded the letter and the NHTSA wrote back saying that there was no reason to suspect a problem. Further they stated that my neck could support a tension of 742 pounds. Then, they used the reasoning that the test specification that they use, FMVSS No. 218, tests the helmet retention system at 300 pounds and that a human neck can safely withstand the retention system test load. They did not address the issue. It will take an "Act of Congress" to get the NHTSA to admit any problems caused by helmets. We, "The Bikers", are working on it. In 1997 the Transportation Committee in the California State Assembly produced a report that was derived from pro-helmet law organizations. In that report they reported that the number of accidents declined when the helmet law was introduced. They also reported that the number of cerebral spine injuries remained the same. When you put these numbers together, you see that the cerebral spine injury per accident rate increased when the helmet law was introduced. You can get this information at at: http://www.sen.ca.gov/ on the Internet. Refer to the analysis for bill AB1412. You will always be able to prove that a helmet law will save lives. The reason is that a helmet law for any activity or group will decrease the involvement for that activity or group. If you made a helmet law for people in sub-compact cars, the number of fatalities in that group would go down, because people would shy away from riding in sub-compact cars if they had to wear a helmet. Also, notice when you hear pro-helmet law people giving statistics, they will compare injuries to registrations or state population; this gives the effectiveness of a helmet law. To judge the effectiveness of the use of helmets, you have to compare the number of injuries to the number of accidents and use the injury per accident rate. Forcing citizens to wear helmets does not fit in my definition of a free country. It fits neatly into the definition of Socialism where citizens are openly considered property of the government. An important detail is that a helmet will not save a person's life if he hits a wall at 30 miles per hour or 40 miles per hour at a 45 degree angle. The G forces are to great; it would be equivalent to a 300 pound weight being placed on an exposed brain. If you are up on the math; (Velocity squared = 2 * acceleration * distance) and the weight of the average brain is 2.2 pounds, and 1G = 32.17 feet per second squared, are all you need to figure this out. The 300 pound figure is derived from the force that half of the brain has on the other half with a stopping distance of one inch, for simplicity. Naturally the force is not distributed evenly and would be much greater at the closest part to the impact and much less on the other side. This is why the sticker inside a new helmet is only rated with a life saving ability of up to 13 miles per hour. Look in a helmet and read the label. What using helmets does, is make people feel safe when they are going fast, but it will only provide a life saving benefit at speeds up to 13 miles per hour.