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Helmet Law Reintroduced In Pennsylvania
http://www.aimncom.com/mc_news/cst2cst/2006/0706.html

In response to a spike in motorcycle fatalities following repeal of the state helmet law three years ago, a bill to reinstate a mandatory helmet law has been introduced in Pennsylvania.

Motorcycle deaths and injuries are up significantly since 2003, but so is the number of motorcyclists on the highways. These coincidental trends have led authors of a new legislative study to shy away from making definitive conclusions on whether the helmet law repeal itself is responsible for the increase in fatal accidents.

The study on motorcycle accidents by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee results from a mandate in the 2003 law. Another report is due in 2008. The committee's report says that both fatalities and serious injuries involving motorcyclists increased one-third during 2004 and 2005 in Pennsylvania.

But the report notes that motorcycle registrations in Pennsylvania jumped to 318,000 from 267,000, a 19 percent increase, during the same period.

The report states: "261 persons died in motorcycle crashes in the two years prior to 2003, compared to 362 persons in the first two years after repeal, an increase of 38.7 percent.

"However, when the number of registered motorcycles is taken into consideration, the average annual fatality rate after repeal of the Helmet Law (5.9 fatalities per 10,000 registered motorcycles in 2004 and 2005) was not substantially higher than the pre-repeal (2001 and 2002) average annual fatality rate of 5.4 fatalities per 10,000 registered motorcycles."

The report also focuses on serious head injuries resulting from motorcycle accidents, but found that analytical data doesn't exist to specifically link helmet use with head trauma injuries.

It's hard to draw any conclusions about what's really going on from the legislative report, said Charles Umbenhauer, lobbyist for ABATE of Pennsylvania.

But two Keystone lawmakers, Reps. David Frankel, D-Allegheny, and Tony Melio, D-Bucks, have drawn their own conclusions and recently sponsored bills to restore the helmet requirement for adults.

And Umbenhauer also warns that "The Pennsylvania Chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma are lobbying Pennsylvania to re-enact a mandatory helmet law." In addition, "the American Automobile Association (AAA) is also pushing for a mandatory helmet law for all motorcyclists."

In Florida, recent statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) indicate that motorcycle fatalities have increased 67 percent from 2000, when ABATE of Florida successfully lobbied the state legislature to repeal their helmet law, to 2004. But a Florida Today analysis also shows that motorcycle registrations have increased 87 percent in Florida since Governor Jeb Bush signed the helmet law repeal on July 1, 2000

Wonder if this has anything to do with the steelers? Hmm.

I expect the local Penn ABATE will try and fight this but this is all primarily driven by the accident of one pro-football player more than anything else.

As has been oft repeated. If a John Doe has an accident it will make the back pages of the local newspaper and perhaps get a moments notice on the ten oclock news in a small burgh.

But when some pudnocker football player who is flesh and blood like the rest of us involves himself in a mishap....it becomes a matter of national concern.

God save us from the self rightiuos P***** who think our business is theirs.

ABATE is about the right to choose. I think thats pretty rational and down right American.

Legislating personal choice not only is wrong but if you are a in favor of freedom its I-R-R-A-T-I-O-N-A-L

Beware of the fat police, nutrition is next. You don't lose your freedoms all at once they get chipped away little by little. I have seen no law passed by any state that prohibits anyone from wearing a lid. So choose to wear it but stay out of other folks backyards, kitchens, bedrooms and lives.

ABATE is supposed to be about the right to choose. In PA, they have been involved in promoting driver awareness, safety courses, removing lighting restrictions, and a number of other issues, including the right to choose to wear a helmet.
However, a lot of the legislators that they support, and lobby, to accomplish these things are the same crooked scumbags that voted themselves a midnight, unconstitutional pay raise last summer. Many of these same legislators have been found "ethically deficient" in other areas as well.
I joined ABATE soon after I bought my bike because their causes were just. But when they ask their members to support and re-elect self-serving sleazeballs because they happen to "support" rider-friendly legislation, I have a problem with that. The end doesn't justify the means in PA.

Not all.... If they kept the bars open longer the wife would have probably fed me to the winged vermin.