Colo. House Passes Motorcycle Helmet Bill for Minors

March 5, 2007

  • March 15, 2007 at 5:26 am
    Scott Marcott says:
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    Another Democrat trying to amend another helmet law mandate bill. Democrats really love chipping away people freedoms; it\’s all they like to do.

    Having a helmet law for motorcyclist will just create more problems (then saving money on head injuries) when the helmet law was repealed in 1977 for lack of enforcement, the 1977 helmet law did not work; even trying it today with more motorcycles, isn\’t going to solve the problem. Head injuries and cost, is all democrats complain about with using data from NHSTA when these reports are written by pro-helmet engineers, really what happens when Colorado motorcycle registration decline when people refuse to register their motorcycles because of the dislike of the helmet law?

    When California passed it\’s helmet law in 1992, DMV registrations declined more then 42%, wow out of a 900,000 registered motorcyclist, really, how can that be after a helmet law in California?

    Also court attacks, a helmet law will cost more to enforce in the court room defending helmet case than head injuries. What happens when you have upped the percentages of court cases on helmet citation hearings tying up the court room when you have DUI, speeding, hit & run cases for example but motorcyclists cause a stir in the court room arguing constitutional challenges to the helmet law, has anybody heard me? How many motorcyclists will flood the court rooms on helmet challenges.

    Also, thanks to the author of California\’s helmet law back in 1991. he apparently didn\’t realize that motorcyclist made countless of public court cases and case law. That help repeal other states helmet laws because of case law from California and forced Congress to repeal the National Highway Act Helmet law in 1996, due to the pressure from California.

    Now after 15 years in California, we have build up so many unconstitutional helmet law cases, we finally got our helmet law declared fully unconstitutional recently. If Colorado passes it\’s 18 and under helmet law, well motorcyclist have that case law at their finger tips to write in to repeal the same law every State has adopted under the National Safety Traffic Highways Admin helmet language which has been ruled unconstitutional (FMVSS 218, it provides no list of approved helmets nor disproved helmets or recalled helmets), so pass it and see it get repealed in Colorado.

    The helmet law author in Colorado also failed to exempt religious riders for wearing turban and medical exemptions in the language, again this is discrimination against motorcyclist.

    I look forward to seeing this bill fail and if it passes, oh did I forget civil liability suits on helmet manufacture and wrongful death suits against the State for the mandatory helmet law.

    Also did you know that the Department of Transportation does not test helmets. Interesting the labeling system on the out shell is just a sticker stating compliance that if any testing is done on the 500 new helmet designs sent to shop for sale, DOT will randomly pick about 10 helmets out of 500 for testing (like a lottery) sending those helmets to a private government company helmet engineering lab that has not been upgraded since 1966. Testing still consists of the 3 basic functions: penetration, retention and impact. Nothing has been really done about changing these so called standards, they are old and so out dated and any manufacture or let’s say 9 out 10 if you request a helmet manufacture fact sheet from the helmet manufacture that made (any helmet) the particular helmet you want information about, and they will have no such information to give to you. All manufactures have to do is make the helmet and put a label on it. If you ride and get hurt or killed, then you have to sue the manufacture in all cases to prove the helmet is faulty. What happens is that helmet get puts off the market or not. No real list tell us what are go or bad helmets, all they the government or Department of Transportation will give to you is a 3 small page helmet brochure on what to look for in design, that’s all. You have to get into an accident to discover if it is good or not, not the government, they want nothing part of your problems and from the manufactures. These so called standards are so bad that anybody can be a helmet manufacture and make their own helmet and sale it, on the street or in the store, just put on the DOT label and a ok it says.

    Now if you have a weird design or weird materials, doesn’t matter but if you want to request DOT to test your helmet, you can do just that if you want or if they feel no reason to. If you have a old 6-pack styrofoam ice cooler for the inner shell or lining interior and maybe a packet or metal wash pale for the exterior to cover the cooler and maybe some strong string to make that retention system hold on your head. Send it to DOT for a test and see what happens. http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/gearbox/motorcycle_helmet_review/index.html
    Well if you want to know the answer, a model of this model, did past DOT’s standard but DOT does not like to publish this information. It is interesting to know we thing the most expensive helmets on the market are be the best for a situation turn out failing and some of the worst designs end up doing better than full shield helmet. However what is the reason for this? It is crooked as finding weapons of mass destruction in area there are no such information available to prove there is, you guest it, nothing.

    So Colorado, want a helmet law, pass it and see what happens. Make companies like All State Insurance, Farmers, MetLife and etc happy as many insurance companies know that helmet laws reduce rider-ship not head injuries.



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