Abolish bike helmet laws
March 3rd, 2008America is becoming a Nanny State. All these do-gooders with too much time on their hands like to sit around and tell you what is best for you, because they know what is best for you better than you know yourself. Yes, you’re a grown man or woman and they’ll tell you how to live your life.
Helmet laws are stupid. Drop the lawsuit crap right now. That’s just an excuse when you call one of these do-gooders on their bullshit. Don’t tell an adult what is in their best interest. Just don’t. Let adults decide for themselves.
Bike helmets aren’t even good protection. Hate to break it to the Bike Helmet Nazis, but bikers get killed by cars. When a car hits a human body, it could throw it, smash it, run it over and possibly drag it, or cut it in half. That’s the reality of it. A bike helmet isn’t going to do very much good if your body just got dragged 50 feet on asphalt or it got cut in half.
I’ve also known that my father’s friend’s first wife and my first boss’s buddy both got decapitated by cars (with one being a hit and run). A whole lot of good a bike helmet would have done them.
I’ve been biking for 37 years and refuse to wear one. Truth is, for me, they’re dangerous. Yes, I’ve fallen off bikes before, but because of my Judo training, I roll. Here’s an example of how a bike helmet for me can actually be fatal, or worse, could make me a Quadriplegic.
I used to do crazy ass stunts when I was a kid on a bike too. You want to hear something amazing? I’m still alive today! And I never wore a bike helmet! Wow!
Now, if you want to wear one, more power to you. You, not he Nanny State, should decide what is best for you. Let adults make their own choices. I’m sick of busy-body do-gooders who must stick their nose in everyone else’s business.
Great post Zombie… I agree with you. I hate the feeling of those helmets anyway. Kora has one because she got it free. Other than that I have no intentions of getting them new ones as they grow. If they learn to be careful and such they will be fine.I never wore a helmet either. So I know exactly what you are talking about.
I feel the same way.. and just yesterday I was saying the same thing about trampolines. People are starting to suggest helmets for them. WTF!? When I was a kid playing at the YMCA, they had giant trampolines and lots of kids using them… and if a kid fell wrong (cause thats the problem, not knowing how to fall properly) and broke something, the parents did not sue the place or even the person watching the kids. It was always a possibility that your kid could get hurt. Life is fatal remember. Sue God.
What is with this bullshit about not getting hurt, emotionally or physically? To be so over-protective will only result in less resilience, not less pain. I guess that would be a good thing if there were groups who had vested interest in people becoming weaker and emotionally paper thin.
Just blow us over we wont put up a fight.
I say stop punishing the majority for the minority of neglectful idiots who shouldn’t be allowed to raise children in the first place. These stupid laws are just trying to cover up the fact that the social programs that are put in place to care for children who really are abused or neglected are sorely underfunded and not able to do their jobs.
Don’t get a helmet.. get a new political party.
no a helmet won’t save you from the more gruesome ways a car can kill you but i know a lady who fell off her bike, no helmet and knocked her head on a curb, no car involved. she spent months in a coma and has spent the last two years in a wheelchair, unable to feed herself, suffering seizures, and speaking only with great difficulty due to the head injury. a helmet seems a pretty simple thing to prevent that sort of suffering for both her and her family.
I agree. We wear helmets because in city driving you’re far more likely to be saved by a helmet due to the speed you’re going. However, on highways if you spill - most of the time you can forget it.
My parents hate helmets and only have them for when they ride through states with helmet laws. Right now Illinois is optional.
Really what I think they should get rid of is that stupid law in California that allows motorcyclists to legally weave between lanes of traffic. That’s plain stupidity right there. Not because motocyclists can’t be trusted to drive safely or judge their own abilities, but because from experience, I know that most people on the road, especially douchebags in giant luxury SUVs have NO IDEA how to drive around motorcyclists.
hee hee.. I automatically interpreted “biking” to be motorcycle references… I suppose this goes for that too. I just realized you were talking about bicycles… oops.
I don’t think helmets should be mandated by law, but I DO believe in wearing them.
I’ve known several kids whose lives were saved by helmets. I’ve also known several people, like the lady Lime referred to, who would have been spared if they had worn a helmet.
Motorbikes or push bikes?
Motorbikes - I think you should wear one
Push bikes - optional if you are an adult
*ducks*
I have never ever worn a bike helmet. I learned quite simply how to fall off of a bike. Next thing you know, there will be laws mandating people wear helmets while they’re walking down the street. Helmets don’t help clumsy.
Tweetey - Miraculously you’re still alive as well.
Clothosfate - They’ll soon make FUN illegal, because it’s too dangerous.
The thing is, you can get hurt doing anything. Maybe we should all just sit around the house and watch t.v. Probably the safest thing we can all do. Oh, make sure we wear helmets when watching t.v.
Lime - Sure, she should have worn one. But don’t make it law.
I learned to roll. One time I fell off my bike while mountain biking going about 30-40 mph and did a perfect roll. Had I been wearing a helmet, I’d be a quadriplegic today. See the picture I drew. That would have been me.
Laura - I wouldn’t ride a motorcycle period simply because of douchebags in giant luxury SUVs. They never watch out for anything, while gabbing on their cell phones and doing everything except for driving. But that’s a rant you’ve heard me go off on before.
Tshsmom - Excellent. That’s exactly my point. If you’re clumsy, then by all means, wear one. just don’t make it a law for those of us who know how to fall correctly. As I said, I’d be a quadriplegic today if I was wearing one.
Miladysa - Push bikes? English English makes me laugh sometimes.
Sprinkle - We should go a step further and make it illegal to leave the house. That way, you’ll never have accidents. And as soon as you wake up, you’re required by law to put your helmet on.
We should even have shower helmets. You can fall in a shower too and the results can be devastating. Plus, your dog should wear a helmet. Your cat too. Let’s not forget your parrot and your goldfish.
A goldfish can crash hard into your underwater castle or that diver with the buried treasure. If a helmet can save just one goldfish…
I would agree with no bike-helmet laws in the States, but here in the Great Frozen North where we pay for each other’s health care, we all have a stake in making sure people aren’t being dumbasses with their personal safety! ;D
maybe i am not too bright but i don’t quite grasp what your drawing is illustrating.
SME - That’s something that scares me about socialized medicine. That means I’ll have to pay for the guy who sits on the couch all day and eats potato chips and never walks or does anything? Yikes!
Lime - Heh. Maybe I should have put a face on that guy. It’s a guy with a bike helmet getting his bike helmet caught on the ground, thus having his neck broken when it could have been a clean roll.
ZS - ‘American’ English makes me laugh some times too!
Reminds me of a story my father used to tell about the WWII. He was sailor on a British ship passing through the Suez Canal. A conversation took part between my father, his fellow sailor and an American sailor. Half way through the conversation American sailor asked,
“Geez you guys speak good English. Where did you learn it?”
My father’s friend, a Scot turned to my father and whispered loudly,
“Is he serious Sandy?”
And my father being a diplomat replied,
“Let’s move on down the ship…”
ah ok, now i get the picture…thanks
Miladysa - You mean the British speak English?
Just kidding. The sad thing is I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some Americans today who didn’t know that English didn’t come from this country.
Lime - Cool.
If you want more fun laws like these, be sure to vote for Barak Hussein Obama. He and his commie Berkeley buddies would love to be the day care providers for our new nanny state.
Barcelona - I’m going to do some research on him and Civil Liberties. I have a feeling I’m not going to like what I find.
I definitely agree with you on this subject, although I don’t have a problem with little kids wearing them.
I do object strenuously to most playground equipment these days. We played on jungle gyms and other metal climbing apparati and TALL metal slides. Occasionally, someone would fall and break an arm, but nobody got seriously hurt.
I wonder if part of the problem is that kids these days suck. My niece who will turn 18 this month remembers playing on the 7+ foot slide when she was little, but apparently it got taken out because some other little girl actually PUSHED people off the top of the slide. My niece was one who got pushed.
Sure, we goofed on the slide and would pretend to push people, but it pushing then DOWN the actual slide part.
Now is time for the other side of the story. Helmets do save lifes because often when a bike or bicycle gets hit by a vehicle, the rider isn’t aways crushed under the vehicle, he goes flying. When one flys after being struck, one does not always lands safely one’s feet. Having the helmet in these cases can make the difference between surviving or being dead or a vegetable. I really don’t enjoy paying for lifelong care through my taxes for motor cyclists who won’t wear a helmet or for their surviving children.
I agree with Geopax on motorcycle helmets.
Oh, and I hated that in California, I wasn’t allowed to swing on the swings at the playground because I was a solitary adult and could be arrested just for being there.
Kathleen - That’s the thing about California. Guilty until proven innocent. Yes, every adult who doesn’t have a child is a child molester. That’s how they think there. Whackos.
And yeah, kids today suck and they’ve been softened so they cry at anything.
Breaking a bone should be a prereq for growing up.
Geopax - Ok, there’s the argument I was waiting for. So, let’s tax people for being overweight. They bring up our hospital bills. Heh, well at least we can tax the illegals that way.
Let’s tax people who don’t exercise. They bring up our hospital bills.
Let’s tax people who eat too much fast food. They bring up our hospital bills.
Where does it stop? Soon, you’ll be taxing and/or fining everyone for everything because it would bring up our hospital bills.