PENNSYLVANIA'S MANDATORY HELMET LAW

Is It Significant to Motorcycle Safety?

Courtesy of A.B.A.T.E. of Pennsylvania

U.N.C. Cost Study continued from previous page .....

The subject of medical insurance has received widespread publicity in recent months as an election campaign issue. Various reports have noted that a large percentage of Americans don't have, and can't afford, medical insurance. The North Carolina study confirms that. Dr. Stutts found that of all the motorcyclists taken to the eight trauma centers, 49.4 percent had their medical costs covered by insurance.

However, the insured percentage was no higher for other accident victims. Of all patients brought to the hospitals, from motor vehicle accidents, only 50.4 percent had their treatment costs covered by insurance.

In other words, lack of medical insurance is a problem for American society as a whole, not just for motorcyclists.

In fact, it isn't just a lack of medical insurance purchased by victims that's a problem here. Accident research reveals that a majority of car/bike accidents are caused by the car driver, who is, therefore, liable for injuries to the rider. The fact that so many motorcyclist medical bills aren't covered by insurance reveals that many car drivers aren't living up to their obligation to buy liability insurance. On the other hand, very few car or truck drivers are injured by motorcyclists, so the amount of their medical bills that should be borne by motorcyclists is negligible.

Using Stutt's cost figures, we tabulated the total cost to society from motorcycle injuries and all other motor vehicle injuries. The motorcyclist portion totaled S5.5 million dollars over the 2 1/2 year study period, or about $2 million per year, of which some unknown portion is actually the responsibility of the car drivers. On the other hand, the social burden of other motor vehicle accident victims amounted to $80 million during the study period, or S32 million per year.

"This study is particularly bad news for those who have. insisted that motorcyclists should be required to carry catastrophic health insurance," notes AMA Legislative Affairs Specialist Chris Kallfelz, who attended the injury conference on behalf of the AMA. "It clearly demonstrates that the claim of an enormous 'social burden' arising from motorcycle accidents is a myth,"

"The cost of medical treatment from motor vehicle accidents is an undeniable problem for Americans," added Kallfelz. "But singling out motorcyclists to solve that problem just doesn't make any sense. It's discriminatory, and it won't work."

UNIVERSITY STUDY DISPELS SOCIAL BURDEN THEORY

Study conducted by Dr. Jane Stutts, University of North Carolina.

Presented at the annual conference of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine.

Article reprinted from AMA magazine.

Motorcyclists are irresponsible. Motorcyclists do not carry health insurance. Motorcyclists who are uninsured and get into accidents are a much larger burden on taxpayers than automobile drivers.

You know it's true. You've been hearing those arguments from safety experts for years. Several politicians have used them as the basis for bills that would require motorcyclists to carry special catastrophic health insurance. And they wouldn't do that if they didn't have the facts behind them, right?

Don't count on it. You see, those so-called experts have been telling us half the story for years. They've only reported the costs of injuries suffered by motorcyclists. They haven't compared them to the costs associated with other types of accidents.

Now, however, there is a study funded primarily by the Motorcycle Industry Council that reveals the whole picture. And guess what? Motorcyclists AREN'T irresponsible. Motorcyclists DO carry health insurance as often as other vehicle operators. And injured motorcyclists represent only a minute part of the so-called social burden resulting from motorcycle vehicle accidents.

The study, conducted by Dr. Jane Stutts of the University of North Carolina's Highway Safety Research Center, was presented at the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine's annual conference in Toronto. And it clearly shows that motorcyclists are just like everyone else in society - no more responsible and no less irresponsible.

Stutts researched the medical costs for accident victims taken to eight trauma centers in North Carolina between 1987 and 1990. During that period, she noted, there were 708 motorcyclists requiring treatment at those facilities, and 8,961 victims of other types of motor vehicle accidents.

The average cost for treatment of a motorcyclist was $15,801, which is unquestionably a lot of money. Interestingly, though, the average treatment cost for victims of other types of motor vehicle accidents was $17,892or $2000 more!

But that's not the important issue. The key question is who foots the bill for that medical treatment? In previous studies, including the infamous Harborview Medical Center Study released a few years ago, researchers labeled motorcyclists as irresponsible because, they said, a large percentage of riders don't carry medical insurance to cover the costs of their injuries. As a result, they concluded that motorcyclists are a tremendous burden on taxpayers, who must pick up the cost of that treatment.

Table 8.

Table 5.

Table 6.

*Mandatory Helmet Law.

Illinois, Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin were selected for this comparison for three reasons. None have a mandatory helmet law. Their latitude is similar to Pennsylvania's, thus

controlling for length of riding season. And the number of registered motorcycles within each state is somewhat comparable to those registered in Pennsylvania.

Delaware and Maine are represented due to their geographic proximity to Pennsylvania (Table 6).

laws lead to an increase in accidents and fatalities, it does show that the absence of a mandatory helmet law does not result in the same (Table 2).

Table 3.

Table 4.

A Comparison of Motorcycle Accident and Fatality Rates between Mandatory Helmet Law States and Voluntary Helmet Use States.

Summary

The data used for this comparison was obtained from the 1994 Motorcycle Statistical Annual, Motorcycle Industry Council, Inc., 1994. The state motorcycle accident statistics were divided between states with a mandatory helmet law and those without. This data is found in Tables 6 and 7.

Table 1.

The only variable used in this comparison is a mandatory helmet law. The results show that accident and fatality rates are higher, overall, in states with mandatory helmet laws. The total number of accidents and fatalities are also higher in these same states (Table 1).

Table 2.

Mandatory helmet law states account for sixty-one percent (61%) of total motorcycle registrations. They account for sixty-four percent (64%) of the accidents and sixty-five percent (65%) of the fatalities. While this data does not confirm that mandatory helmet

NOW, IT’S UP TO YOU!

July of 1996 will mark the completion of 28 years of mandatory motorcycle helmet use in Pennsylvania. Curiously enough, Pennsylvania's helmet law and that of almost all of the other 25 mandatory helmet law states was enacted in response to guess what? FEDERAL PENALTIES AGAINST STATES which DIDN'T HAVE MANDATORY HELMET LAWS.

That federal mandate was repealed 'in 1975 and as a result many states repealed the helmet laws enacted 'in response to the federal mandate. PENNSYLVANIA MISSED THAT OPPORTUNITY in large part because motorcyclists never bothered to voice their support for repeal. Many of them didn't know where Harrisburg was, let alone about the details of our state's legislative process or the name of their state representative or state senator.

Times have changed. WE KNOW OUR STATE'S ELECTED OFFICIALS. WE UNDERSTAND THE LEGISLATIVE PROCESS.

THIS IS A DEFINING MOMENT FOR THE PENNSYLVANIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY …. to restore a simple, inherent right to a minority which seeks only to be left alone at no one else's expense.

END PENNSYLVANIA’S HELMET HOAX NOW!

END PENNSYLVANIA'S HELMET HOAX ...... NOW!

THE FEDS HAVE PAVED THE WAY

In the Fall of 1995, both chambers of the United States Congress adopted amendments to the National Highway System funding bill to repeal the federal penalties against states which do not have mandatory motorcycle helmet laws. This bill with these amendments was signed into law by the president on November 28, 1995.

WHY?

There were several reasons. With overwhelming BI-partisan support in both the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, this Congress saw a defining opportunity to express itself on:

1) States tights (wherein 25 states without mandatory helmet laws refused to Yield to the federal mandate.... despite the threat of huge losses in federal highway construction subsidies)

2) Governmental paternalism (where, historically yielding to combined interests of bureaucrats, the insurance and health care *industries, there arose the fundamental issue of the appropriate scope of governmental intrusion into the individual lifestyles and decisions of adult motorcyclists)

THE SAFETY DEBATE

Quite honestly, there are good arguments on both sides of the issue as to whether wearing a motorcycle helmet reduces the injuries or fatalities of motorcycle operators.

Other variables are of much greater significance to incidence of injury or fatality. Foremost among these variables is the problem of the intoxicated, unlicensed driver who by some estimates is involved in more than one-half of all motorcycle-related injuries and fatalities.

You don't solve that problem by forcing someone to wear a helmet.

What is absolutely true and has been proven by all the available statistics is that:

THERE IS NO DISCERNEBLE DIFFERENCE IN MOTORCYCLE INJURIES OR FATALITIES AMONG THOSE STATES WHERE MOTORCYCLE HELMET USE IS MANDATORY VERSUS THOSE STATES WHERE HELMET USE IS VOLUNTARY!

The following pages unveil a study by the American Motorcyclist Association (prepared at the request of Governor Ridge) which reinforces this conclusion. Pennsylvania's experience as a mandatory helmet use state recorded the incidence of accidents per 10,000 motorcycle registrations at 167.17 and fatalities per 100 accidents at 4. 1. The average rates for all of the mandatory helmet use states are 222.21 for accidents and 2.98 for fatalities versus rates of 194.02 for accidents and 2.9 for fatalities 'in voluntary helmet use states.