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http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/AmericanFlag.jpg Staggering: More than 80 percent of motorcyclists killed last year were not wearing a helmet! (http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2009/08/31/front_page/29339515.txt)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/591/cycle_crash_i.jpgTom Barker - THESOUTHERN (http://www.thesouthern.com) - August 31, 2009

Personal protective gear should be a priority in every motorcyclists mind! Simply wearing a helmet could save your life! --Ed.

Big, yellow banners aren't the only way state agencies are spreading the word about motorcycle awareness.

The Illinois State Police and the Illinois Department of Transportation, partnered with State Farm Insurance, work constantly to reverse the increasing trend of traffic fatalities involving motorcycles, and a display outside the State Police tent at the Du Quoin State Fair has got some motorists thinking hard about driving safely.

The display includes two heavily damaged motorcycles that have been donated to the police by State Farm, statistics related to traffic accidents in Illinois and all the safety information a motorist could... http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2009/08/31/front_page/29339515.txt

Darwins law always applies to motor cycles. I remember back in the early eighties there was a bad motor cycle accident in my township around 2 am in the morning.
I rolled up on it with a buddy of mine just as the paramedics got there.

A guy hit a milk truck head on. His head made a nice hole through the metal grill and damaged the radiator of the truck. There he was laying on the ground rolling around in pain with the paramedics trying to keep him calm. With him he was lucky because from what I could see he had no spinal injuries. On the back of his helmet was a decal the said "Helmet Laws Suck".

My buddy says to me do you see the decal and I just looked at him and said with out that helmet he would have been killed instantly. He just shook his head in agreement.

My sister taught me how to ride (1979) and one thing she made a point of saying was How Much Is Your Head Worth? You can buy a twenty dollar helmet or you can buy a hundred dollar helmet. I bought a $110 Bell Helmet at the time. That would be a $250-$300 helmet today.

Here's the quote from the article:

Most fatal motorcycle crashes occur in the months of July and August, and more than 80 percent of motorcyclists killed last year were not wearing a helmet.

Some in the motorcycle community regard not wearing helmets as some kind of new age religion. They simply won't believe that helmets are a good thing, and deny that helmets have any value.

I'm glad this latest finding is out there for these people to ponder. Studies already show that helmets save lives, but many refuse to believe these studies. That recent study from NZ shows that wearing a white helmet reduces a motorcyclist's chance of having an accident by 24 percent. This is also in play: when a biker is not wearing a helmet, he is less visible to other motorists. He has already demonstrated a disdain for safety, and is also more likely to crash for that reason. A study from Hawaii concludes that riders who do not wear helmets have a higher accident rate than helmeted riders.

I know exactly where Darwin would be on this issue...

Harry