Motorcycle crash study - first since Hurt report

 Sorry if this was already posted but it's important.
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http://www.amadirectlink.com/study/fuelthefund.asp

Posted December 1, 2006 Email Print


Fuel the fund: AMA contributes $100,000 to crash-study fundraising effort
It’s been more than 25 years since the only comprehensive study of motorcycle
crashes in the United States was completed.

For most of the past five years, the AMA has been working hard to get federal
authorization for a new, updated study.

And now we're close - really close. But we need your help.
.....

 

No, it isn't.

The Hurt study proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that wearing a helmet
saved lives.

However we still 30 years later do not have mandatory helmet laws in all
50 states.

That shows pretty conclusively to me that all this new proposed study will
do is say a bunch of things that riders don't want to hear anyway and that
state politicians will simply ignore.

We don't need another study telling us that smoking is bad.  We don't need
another study telling us to wear helmets and safety gear.  What we need is
for riders to do it and stop riding down the street in jeans and a T shirt.
The
5 million bucks that this study would chew up would be better spent on
educating riders that they need to quit being idiots about safety gear.

Ted

 wrote:


The importance of a helmet  was just one aspect of the Hurt report.  There was a
lot of valuable information in there that can benefit even someone who is
staunchly against wearing a helmet. For example, the causes and likelihood of
various types accidents. After all, the primary goal is to avoid the accident.

Considering the length of time and the changes to ridership and technology I
believe that there is a good chance to gain some  useful knowledge.


Ben

 
in message

Nor should there EVER be one. Before you get spun
up I AM in favour of wearing a helmet. but from a
basic freedom stand point it should be an option.
If people choose poorly so be it...it isn't the
governments job to protect you from every possible
thing in life. We need more responsibility and
fewer nannies.

What we need is INFORMED riders. If they choose to
ride stupid too bad for their families.
--
Keith Schiffner
History does not record anywhere at any time a
religion that has any rational basis. Religion is
a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up
to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff,
most people do have a religion and spend time and
money on it and seem to derive considerable
pleasure from fiddling with it.
Robert Heinlein

 Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:

Which is a good thing. Liberty trumps government nannyism in very few
areas of American life these days. Thank goodness you can still make a
choice regarding helmets (in some states anyway). My choice is to wear
proper safety gear, but thank God it's still a *choice* in Texas.

As for the lack of helmet laws negating the effective value of the Hurt
Report: Not true. The Hurt Report's findings, which were about *much*
more than just helmets, serve to this day as the basis for the MSF
course curriculum. Not only that, but the data has also helped make
riding gear better for those of us who make the wise choice to wear it.

Tim Kreitz
2003 ZX7R
2000 ZX6R
http://www.timkreitz.com