ALT-23 Motorcyclists should always Wear Helmets – Agree
The question of whether motorcyclists should wear a helmet, or not, has been going on for as long as their have been motorcycles. I can imagine the first guy to bring his shiny new bike home, was greeted with,"That contraption looks unsafe! You should be wearing a helmet!"
It's really common sense. Cars, trees, concrete, and the side of a cow are all going to have an adverse effect on your head if, or when, you crash into one of them. This fact should be easily seen by anyone with the physical coordination to actually ride a motorcycle.
As an example, look at the game of football. Other then on a sandlot somewhere, you just don't see people playing serious football without a helmet. Why? Simple. It's dangerous, you can be easily hurt. Everyone knows that. So everyone wears a helmet. In fact, the referees will stop the game, and in some cases, penalize your team, if you don't have your helmet affixed to your head.
I used to be of the opinion that a helmet wouldn't do me any good. I hated to wear one. When we rode to a state that didn't have a helmet law, I was the first one to take mine off and strap it to the side of my bike, proclaiming my freedom from the man and his tyrannical laws. Like some kind of rebel.
Then in August of '95 I was knocked of my CB 750 by an inexperienced rider, on a 650 Yamaha who didn't know how to share a lane, who put his rear wheel into my front. Which resulted in me and my bike crashing to the ground, at about forty miles an hour.
If the good state of Nebraska hadn't been forcing me to wear a helmet at the time I probably wouldn't be hear, sitting in front of this keyboard, regaling you all with this exploit.
My left clavicle was snapped cleanly in two. Three of my ribs, on the left side, were broken, as were a couple of bones in my right foot.
But the helmet saved my head from being crushed on the pavement. The proof can clearly be seen by the six inch crack that runs vertically down the left side. I keep that helmet as a reminder. It is my firm belief that I might have died on that night if it weren't for the protection that helmet afforded my precious head.
With that story having been told, I still don't think that there should be a law that forces people to wear a helmet. Over a sufficient period of time the folks who aren't smart enough to realize that wearing a helmet is the intelligent thing to do, will breed themselves out of the population, thereby improving the species, as a whole. And leaving more space for the rest of us to ride.
