Rider Training Funds Still Threatened
What Mary Peters started, others seek to continue. I’ve given considerable coverage to the proposal by U.S. Sec. of Transportation Mary Peters that funds earmarked for motorcycle rider training be diverted to lobby for mandatory helmet laws.
Pretty much all major motorcycling organizations have opposed that, and I reported in a report from the Meeting of the Minds that Peters has backed off on that proposal. Motorcycle Riders Foundation (MRF) President Kirk “Hardtail” Willard cautioned me that despite her statements in that regard, he was still waiting to see her send the letters to that effect to the states.
Well, now the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) reports in the latest issue of American Motorcyclist that a group called the Governors Highway Safety Association has now taken up the issue. American Motorcyclist says:
Christopher Murphy, chairman of the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies, made the request in testimony to the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Highways and Transit this summer.
The opposition to this misuse of funds stems from the conviction that the key to lowering fatality rates is not in having safer crashes, it is in avoiding more of those crashes in the first place. As Doc Ski noted at the Meeting of the Minds, you will die if you get in a bad enough accident, regardless of whether you’re wearing a helmet.
So Mary Peters may have heeded the outcry and reversed her stance, but now that the genie has been let out of the bottle it may not be that easy to put it back in. This is why we need to support organizations like the AMA and the MRF.
Biker Quote for Today
Thin leather looks good in the bar, but it won’t save your butt from road rash if you go down.
Tags: motorcycle training
October 17th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
It’s less expensive to throw money into mandatory helmet laws that rider and driver education. It gives the politicians, most of whom are cagers, a reason to pat one another on the back over how an integral piece of legislation saved people’s lives.
I’m all for the use of helmets. I wouldn’t be here today if I hadn’t been wearing one three years ago. The main impact I see in the effect of misappropriating funds is in one of rider-chosen destiny. Mandatory helmet laws attempt to force safety on the rider. Rider training and education, when rider initiated, demonstrate awareness of competance and willingness to grow, hallmarks of a maturing perspective.