Thursday, April 1, 2010

There are any number of harbingers of spring. The first robin. Blue-eyed Marys carpeting Dowagiac Woods. And the senseless perennial attempt to repeal Michigan’s motorcycle helmet law. The state House voted Thursday to repeal the current helmet law, which would allow motorcycle riders aged 21 years and older to operate their vehicle without a helmet.

The House voted 63 to 46 on House Bill 4747 to repeal the helmet law. The bill now advances to the Senate.

This action strikes us as completely misguided.

As Janet Olszewski, Michigan Department of Community Health director, stated, “The current law protects motorcycle riders from serious and in many cases fatal injury. If this law is removed, there will be great potential for more injuries and deaths related to motorcycle accidents.”

If this bill became law, more riders could opt not to wear a helmet. As a result, injuries and fatalities would increase.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that helmets reduce the risk of fatal head injury by 40 percent and the risk of death by 37 percent.

In addition to the higher risk of serious and fatal injury, the cost of health and automobile insurance for all residents will increase. Medicaid expenditures will climb, too.

A person riding without a helmet is 37 percent more likely to need ambulance services, be admitted to a hospital as an inpatient, have higher hospital costs, need neurosurgery, intensive care and rehabilitation, be permanently impaired and need long-term care.

Many of those cases would be uncompensated care or billed to Medicaid, which means the general Michigan population would be left to pay the bill.

An Office of Highway Safety Planning analysis found that repeal of the state’s mandatory motorcycle helmet law will result in 30 additional fatalities each year, with 127 more incapacitating injuries and $129 million in additional economic costs to Michigan citizens.

“We only have to look to other states that have repealed helmet laws to see what will happen in Michigan if motorcyclists are allowed to ride without a helmet,” said Pete Kuhnmuench, executive director, Insurance Institute of Michigan.

The NHTSA found that in the three years after Florida’s repeal of its mandatory helmet law there was an 81-percent increase in fatalities.