English & Research

Should all States Require Motorcyclists and Passengers to Wear Helmets? 1

Should all States Require Motorcyclists and Passengers to Wear Helmets? 8

Assignment #:4

Should all States Require Motorcyclists and Passengers to Wear Helmets?

Renee C. Bridgeman

English 215 – Research & Writing

Professor Brett Pransky

August 19, 2017

Should all States Require Motorcyclists and Passengers to Wear Helmets?

There are certain events in the life of human beings that impact negatively on them and can be preventable. The use of motorcycles has increased in use over the years in the United States and all over the world (Macmillan, 2010). However, it can be noted through statistics, that since the increase of motorbikes on the road, road accidents have increased too. Some of the accidents that have occurred have been very fatal that have left people with severe injuries of death. However, some of the deaths and injuries can be said to could have been prevented if the motorcyclist and their passengers could have been having their helmets on. All states should create laws that require motorcyclists and passengers to wear helmets. This will help in so many ways as will be explained below.

When motorcycles were introduced in the market, they were mainly used for luxury activities through the different types of motorcycles that were being produced by the different company (Martin, 2016). Some were also used for sporting activities such as motorbike races among other similar activities such as skills showcasing. However, the use of motorcycles has changed over time due to the various changes that have been experienced in the society. Today, motorcycles are also used in the transport industry as they are used to carry passengers across different places and locations. The United States use of motorbikes has been on the rise in the transport sector. However, this has brought challenges with it as well.

History also has it that the increase in the demand and use of motorcycles mainly in the transportation industry has increased accidents some coming with consequences that could have been controlled by just having a helmet on as a passenger or a motorcyclist. The motorbikes are designed in a way that the passenger and the motorcyclists are what can be said to form the body of the motorbikes while it is in motion. This increases the risk of people receiving injuries that were not worth the accidents that occur because they did not have their helmets on when they were moving from one location to another.

The increase in motorbikes has seen an increase in deaths and fatal injuries of motorcyclists and their passengers. This has been contributed by many factors, the main one being the lack of and use of helmets by motorcyclists and their passengers. Passengers and motorcyclists have not taken the helmets as an integral part of the motorbikes. This means that when they are engaged in a road accident, they tend to get injuries that could have been preventing in case such people could have used helmets during such movements from one location.

Motorcycles are the most dangerous form of motor vehicle transportation. In 2013, 4,668 motorcyclists were in involved in fatalities. Additionally, 88,000 more were injured on our nation’s roads in 2013. NHTSA estimates that helmets saved the lives of 1,630 motorcyclists in 2013 and that 715 more lives in all states could have been saved if all motorcyclists had worn helmets. The number of motorcycle crash fatalities has more than doubled since a low of 2,116 motorcycle crash deaths in 1997. When mandatory helmet laws are implemented it increases motorcycle helmet use, it decreases deaths, injuries and saves taxpayer dollars.

Proof that strong laws do save lives, the Center for Disease Control saw that in many states with universal laws (meaning, they apply to all riders), twelve percent of fatally injured motorcyclists were not wearing a helmet. And states with partial helmet laws saw that sixty percent of the fatally injured motorcyclists were not wearing a helmet. In states without a helmet law, the fatality climbed to seventy-nine percent.

If you analyze from 2008 to 2010, 14,283 motorcyclists were killed in crashes, and 6,057 (forty-two percent) of those people were not wearing a helmet.

The CDC estimates the cost per fatality is $1,212,800, the cost per serious injury is $171,753, and $7,523 per minor injury. These totals include the following: 1. Expenses associated with emergency and medical services, 2. Work productivity losses and household-related costs. It does not factor property damage.

In 2010, about $3 billion in all around costs were saved due to helmet use in the United States. However, the CDC estimates that another $1.4 billion could have been saved if all motorcyclists just wore helmets.

Forty-one percent of motorcycle related deaths occurred in 2015. This has remained unchanged since the 1980s. In the early 1980s, the majority of fatally injured motorcyclists who were fifty and older started to increase from three percent of all rider deaths in 1982 to thirteen percent in 1997 and thirty-five percent in 2015. In difference, thirty percent of the fatally injured motorcyclists in 2015 were younger than thirty, compared with eighty percent in 1975. Ninety-one percent of motorcycle users killed in 2015 were males. Sixty-one percent of the female motorcyclists who died in crashes in 2015 were just passengers, and their deaths represented ninety-five percent of the passenger deaths. But the vast majority of male riders who died were drivers.

In 2015, sixty-one percent of fatally injured motorcycle drivers were helmeted. Helmet use was lower, at 47 percent, for people killed as passengers on motorcycles. In 2015, ninety-two percent of fatally injured motorcyclists were helmeted in states with helmet laws that cover all riders, in difference to only twenty-seven percent in states with no helmet law. In states with helmet laws that cover only some riders, forty-one percent of fatally injured motorcyclists were helmeted.

For example, there are accidents that would attract less severe injuries if people would of worn their helmets. But because they did not use them, they received serious injuries, some even ending up dying as a result of such injuries. This means that if motorcyclists and their passengers could have taken an active role in ensuring that they use he helmets at all times, then so many lives could have been saved today in The United States and all over the world.

The problem of not putting on helmets cannot be solely blamed on the passengers and the motorcyclists (Sapkota, 2010). Why? In the United States, there are certain states that have not made it a mandatory thing for passengers and motorcyclists to put on their helmets at all time when they are using these vehicles. The fact that such laws have not been made mandatory in all states within The United States, some people within such states have not taken a keen interest in ensuring that they use the helmets.

If the individual states were more careful and prudent in the making of laws and regulations, they can control the laws once regulations are passed in the various sectors that are affected will have to change the way they operated to have been charged for violating the laws of a given states. It can therefore, be said that the lack of prudence on the part of the states in ensuring that such simple rules are made laws to enhance safety on the roads can be said to be the reason why accidents have to increase tremendously with the increase in the number of motorcycles on the roads and even the demand for such services.

In a personal injury action law-suit brought by an injured motorcyclist, the opposing motorist may raise an issue of the rider's negligence. A rider's right to legal recovery might be barred, or reduced, as a result of their contributed negligence in causing the accident. In defining what constitutes added negligence, there is an important distinction between contributing negligence to an accident and contributing negligence to the injuries received. If responsibility for the accident is admitted, it merely increases or adds to the extent of the injuries suffered by the motorcyclist or passengers.

In some states that have implemented mandatory helmet laws, they either provide only for criminal penalties, or they do not state what effect a violation has on the determination of whether a motorcyclist was negligent. In these particular states, those that do not have helmet laws, leave this judgment on the part of the rider whether or not to wear his or her helmet and this negligence is unsettling. In these states, though the failure to wear a helmet may be found to constitute negligence on the part of a rider or even may be an issue of injuries and damages where it looks like the failure to wear a helmet was a huge factor in contributing to the rider's injuries.

It can also be said that passengers have been part of the problems with regards to the use of helmets. This is because it is very irresponsible of passengers just to accept to ride on a motorcycle without being given a helmet. This means such people do not care about what happens, what they care much about is whether they can reach their destinations on time or not. It is, therefore, important that passengers take various initiatives to ensure that helmets are provided to them before even they board such motorbikes. They should ensure that the motorcyclists are safe by having a helmet before giving such people the go ahead of carrying them on such motorbikes.

In business, some of the decisions that are made by the customers are very important in affecting how a sector of the economy operates. This means that passengers as customers in the motorcycle industry should be ready to take steps to change how things are done in the sector that has taken even the transport industry with the rise in demand for such services across The United States and the world at large.

In conclusion, the motorcycle industry has been on the growth due to the expansion of the transport industry, mainly the road transport. However, this has also led to the increase in the number of road accidents in the roads within The United States. Some of the injuries or consequences that arise out of such accidents are those that could have been preventing by just having a helmet on as a passenger and a motorcyclist. It is therefore, time for all states to create laws that require all motorcyclists and their passengers to always have their helmets on while on board.

References

Consumer Reports News (2012, June 14) CDC report puts scary-big numbers behind the reasons

why motorcyclists should wear helmets

Deutermann, W. 2004. Motorcycle helmet effectiveness revisited. Report no. DOT HS-809-715.

Washington, DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Macmillan, J. (2010). Fatal road accidents in Birmingham: Times to death and their causes. 2010

Second International Conference on Computer Research and Development, 23-32.

Martin, J. (2016, October 12). Liberia's motorbike taxi ban cuts accidents, but revs up other

problems. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/global-

development/poverty-matters/2013/nov/28/liberia-ban-motorbike-taxis-cuts-accidents

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 2016. Traffic safety facts, 2014: motorcycles.

Report no. DOT HS-812-292. Washington, DC: US Department of Transportation.

Sapkota, D. (2010, December 15). Economic Costs Associated with Motorbike Accidents in

Kathmandu, Nepal. Retrieved from The Economist: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5156657/