When I read this article, I thought it deserved to be reprinted and passed along to all of you. Today I wrote to all the Lancaster County legislators and included this article with my letter. The rest of you could do the same.
Jim Young - Chapter Coordinator
    Motorcycle Helmet Law: If Riders Want to Feel the Wind, State Shouldn't Get in the Way Motorcycle Helmet L aw: Bare-Headed Pursuit of Happiness Should B

A. BARTON HINKLE
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST
Jan 23, 2001
  State legislators have an opportunity this year to scale back the scope of paternalism exercised by the Commonwealth. They can do so by repealing the requirement that adults must wear helmets when riding motorcycles. The idea might seem fruitier than Carmen Miranda's hat, but the current law - and the arguments for it - are affronts to principle that cannot withstand scrutiny.
Let us stipulate for the record that repeal probably would increase the highway death toll. Other states repealing their helmet requirements have seen helmet use decline, and fatalities rise. In Texas, motorcycle deaths rose 31 percent the year after the state relaxed its helmet law; the proportion of riders treated for traumatic brain injury also increased. In Arkansas, deaths rose 21 percent. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says a motorcyclist without a helmet is 40 percent more likely to die in a crash.
There's no guarantee fatalities will rise - in Maryland, the percentage of wrecks resulting in death actually rose after helmets became mandatory. In Virginia, fatalities continued to climb after the mandatory helmet law was passed; they began to decline only after the inception of a motorcycle rider training course. And a helmet can prove a liability in some ways - such as making a rider sweat more on a hot day, perhaps interfering with his vision. Still, while

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