Helmet laws throughout the U.S. have always created a great deal of controversy. Currently there are two types of helmet laws in the United States; a universal helmet law, which requires all motorcyclists to wear a helmet and partial helmet law that has age requirements. The helmet debate has been a long battle between free-rights organizations and government officials.
In 1967, the Highway Safety act created a federal highway safety grant program. Prior to this act, no state in the U.S. had a motorcycle helmet law. In order for states to receive federal funds, they were required to have a highway safety program in place. If a state did not enact a universal motorcycle helmet law, portions of these federal funds could be withheld. By
…show more content…
From my perspective, there should be mandatory helmet laws throughout the United States. I have witnessed the injuries and losses of lives from those involved in accidents. Some wore helmets and some did not.
So the debates continue; Should a universal helmet law become mandatory throughout the U.S? The following will explore the various pros, cons, and arguments that fuel this debate.
Many advocates believe the choice to wear a helmet or not should be their own decision. They argue that the government should not be interfering in the matter and view their involvement makes it unconstitutional. In my opinion, the constitution does not give the right for everyone to do as they please. A paper presented at The International Motorcycle Safety Conference in Washington DC states that “The public interest, not interests of a particular person or group, requires interference with individual rights” Obviously the choice is not always our own. The government has the responsibility to protect its citizens from their own choices that cause unnecessary harm.
State and national motorcycle rights organizations are strong advocates of rider education and motorist awareness. I agree this is an important issue but not enough. The Journal of Trauma conducted a study to investigate motorcycle collisions with animals. Based on the results they concluded, “Deer Motorcycle Crashes (DMC) are a significant public health issue in mid-western states.” A deer darting in front of
the helmet covers your whole face and head in order to protect you face from getting kicked in the face after getting bucked off. wearing a helmet is required if you are under 19 years of age. i feel that the helmet should be required for all ages.( in bull-riding you try to stay on a wild, 2,000 pound bull, some with horns the size of my arm. These bulls have tight straps around there butt to make them kick and jump harder. And all you have to hold on to is a single rope. if you fall of, the bull can stomp, trample, or horn you, and you could break bones from the fall (bull riding, 2015). So in the case of safety i feel that helmets should be required for all ages and at all
Did you know that only 19 states and the District of Columbia have laws in place that
Should people under the age of 18 be required to wear a protective helmet while skateboarding, in-line skating, bicycling, snowboarding and skiing? I believe truly believe so. The thrill in these activities, are to speed jump tricks and ride.
Helmets keep a players head safe during a game. Most NFL players still wear helmets that were made in the nineteen-nineties (Halstead). DeSean Jackson now has an anti-concussion football helmet (Chase). If helmet companies manufactured more anti-concussion helmets, players would be better off and the rule would definitely not need to be in play. Also, according to Halstead, in two thousand-thirteen, players will finally have price breaks from helmet companies to be able to buy newer safe helmets (Halstead). If players buy more anti-concussion helmets, they would not get injured as easy nor would the helmet-to-helmet hit rule need to take
Helmets are a major guideline that needs to be improved because a helmet is there to protect the head and prevent concussions but it doesn't seem to be doing a good job. Now there's always that question of “why don't we just make the helmet better and more equipped to prevent concussions?”, well we've had football around for years now and if it hasn't been done yet I don't think it will ever be done. According to the North Eastern Undergraduate Writing Journal, since the 1970s, helmets have been made with a polycarbonate shell, a steel face mask, and padding which is just foam and inflatable air bladders. Even though modern helmets maybe more
Although making helmet to helmet hits illegal will cause lower body injuries, helmet to helmet hits should be illegal in the NFL for two main reasons. First, Helmet to helmet hits causes concussions, but most importantly, after retirement, players who received several concussions develop serious medical conditions. All this proves that the NFL is doing a good thing for the players and what they are doing is going to help the players in the future. It is proven that players who received concussions during their career develop brain damage after they retired. After doing all the research on this topic, I would have to agree with the NFL by making the Helmet to helmet rule in play in order to decrease concussions, even though the players may dislike
Barnett argues “Live contact during regular season and postseason practises will be allowed no more than three days a week and limited to no more than 30 minutes a day and a total of no more than 80 minutes a week. Contact also is not allowed on more than two consecutive days.”(Barnett, pg1) This will help decrease the number of concussions in children and teens in sports. Although it is not a way to prevent them it is still a serious injury that people of all ages should be cautious about. (HELMETS IN SPORTS) “Helmet use in sports spans such varied activities as race-car driving, motorcycling, baseball, hockey, football, lacrosse, equestrian activities, and bicycling. The substantial increase in helmet use is a tribute to the consumer's concern for safety, society's interest in minimizing serious injury, and the helmet industry's efforts to produce acceptable products. Generally speaking, however, helmet safety design has evolved slowly”(Coben, 1). Helmets in sports are the most important tool for protection from concussions. Even though concussions are not 100% preventable schools should pay the extra money to get the safest helmets. Helmet safety is evolving and there are new helmets specifically for concussions. “Forty-one states and Washington, DC, have youth sports TBI laws that require coaches and teams to remove young athletes from play if they are suspected of having suffered a TBI, and all of those states but Wisconsin and Ohio require
The use of protective headgear in contact sports has been a major issue of discussion amongst the sporting community for many years. Some people believe that headgear should be compulsory for all contact sports because they decrease the rate of catastrophic head injuries and they give the athlete a greater sense of security that there will be less head injuries. Others believe that headgear should not be compulsory, but instead optional, because they are an added cost to already expensive sports and they don’t offer any protection against concussions which can lead to brain damage and other problems in later
Many things should be done in relation to the prevention of collisions potentially leading to different brain diseases, disorders, or syndromes. The football helmets should be reevaluated,reassessed, and redesigned to prevent mTBI, mild traumatic brain injuries, such as subconcussive injuries that play a huge deal in what causes CTE. In agreement with Dr. Andrew McIntosh, helmets can prevent skull fractures and intracranial hemorrhage, but they are not designed to prevent mTBI. Also, have youth leagues implement stricter rules, apply the same rules in the NFL in league games or even practices. For example, spearing, when a player uses the helmet/head as the first point of contact with another player, was banned in American
There’s a small amount of data that current sports helmets for youth cut down the risk of brain injuries, according to a national academy of sciences published the year before. Concussions noted in the National Football League are rising dramatically, likely because of a decreased stigma in noting them. Brain injuries reported every week increased by 67 percent from 2009 to 2012.
One of the things I would like to address is that I think when It comes down to it helmets do help the impact lessen by having cushion to protect shock waves from traveling and causing more damage. The impact that causes a concussion has to be pretty hard it isn't something that can happen lightly it has to be a pretty hard hit,
According to the Office of Highway Safety Planning, riders without helmets are 40% more likely to suffer fatal head injuries than those with helmets, and are 15% more likely to incur nonfatal head injuries. When you consider that approximately 3,250 motorcycle accidents occur every year in Michigan, the passage of this new law would lead to hundreds of deaths and head injuries every year that could have been prevented. Michigan is the latest state to
Many people think that to wear a helmet should a personal desition and should be not mandatory. After all, if harm is cause for not wearing a helmet, it will be a personal harm and no a general harm for society, “People have the right to chose their own poison” (Rosenstand, 255).
The compulsory wearing of helmets does reduce the number of fatalities associated with motor cycling and pedal cycling accidents. Data from a variety of studies overwhelmingly supports this fact. When discussing motorcycle helmets, there is a 40% prevention of fatal and 13% prevention of nonfatal serious injuries associated with their use, according to Adam, et al. (1453). After Florida repealed its mandatory helmet law in favor of one that allowed helmets for those over 21 with $10,000 in insurance to be optional, motorcycle fatalities increased across the state (Hooten and Murad, 1329). According to Boone, et al., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that the use of helmets prevented 1,630 deaths in 2013 and could have prevented 715 more if all motorcyclists wore helmets (3). In a study of almost 17,000 patients admitted to the hospital for motorcycle crashes, 37% of the riders were not wearing helmets. These 37% accounted for 69% of the deaths among these patients (Dua, et al. 1184).
According to the Kansas Department of transportation, there were, 1,087 motorcycle crashes in 2016. Of those, 860 people involved in the crashes were injured, 52 people died; while only 21 of those people were wearing helmets (Kansas Department of Transportation). There are only 17 states in the United States that require helmets be used always, 19 states say that you must wear a helmet if you are under the age of 18, while 11 states say you must wear a helmet if you are under the age of 21, leaving only four states that have no helmet laws at all (Motorcycle Helmet Laws)