Another NTSB Overreach
A rider on Tenderfoot Pass. Where is that, you say? I’ll get to that some other day.
There was a wise crack going around some time ago about a particularly grisly motorcyclist death where people were saying, “Thank goodness he was wearing a helmet.” That’s pretty much where this latest thing from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) fits in.
I saw this report, with the title “NTSB calls on states to mandate motorcycle helmets in wake of deadly New Hampshire crash involving impaired West Springfield truck driver” and it’s the same sort of thing. It appears a drunken driver of a pick-up pulling a flat-bed trailer crossed into the oncoming lane and killed seven motorcyclists.
So what does the NTSB do? After investigating they issue a report calling for mandatory helmet laws in every state. Like that totally makes sense.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe in wearing a helmet and always do. However, I also believe in leaving it to the rider to decide. I just don’t think this is the kind of thing government should be dictating. As it was, 12 of the 18 riders in this group were wearing helmets. And the article states that, “NTSB investigators could not conclusively determine the effectiveness of the helmets used by riders in the New Hampshire crash. But the board still voted to recommend that states review and implement motorcycle helmet laws.”
I translate that as “probably most of these people would have died anyway but let’s use this tragedy to push our point of view.” Or, thank goodness some of those dead people were wearing helmets.
The NTSB chairman, Robert Sumwalt, is quoted pulling out the old canard that “someone’s right to ride without a helmet ends at my wallet.” The report says, “NTSB staff and board members also emphasized the societal costs of motorcycle fatalities, citing nearly $9 billion combined in medical costs, lost productivity, EMS services, insurance administrative costs, property damage and workplace losses that may have been avoided in 2017 through universal helmet mandates.”
That argument totally ignores the fact that there are countless things that each and every one of us do that contribute to those same costs, from eating unhealthy food to not exercising to just plain walking down the street. You might get hit by a bus where the driver had a heart attack and the bus veered off onto the sidewalk you were on! Taking that walk was an avoidable behavior that resulted in your injury! Maybe you should have been wearing a helmet when you took that walk.
I say back off. It’s called life.
Biker Quote for Today
They say stress kills. Well, I found the cure. Ride motorcycles.
December 18th, 2020 at 9:50 am
Very well said. I wear my helmet every time I ride, but it is NOT the government’s job to mandate wearing a helmet.