And what is the source of this 42-year long conflict? Imagine a seasoned motorcyclist clipping on a helmet at the start of a summer ride, and you’ve summed it up neatly.
Michigan’s government has been considering repealing the statewide requirement that motorcyclists wear helmets when operating their vehicles. Under new legislation, riders over the age of 21 with at least two years of safe driving experience would be allowed this “freedom”, provided that they carry at least $100,000 in personal liability insurance.
That last figure is throwing a lot of people for a loop. To many, it strikes as painfully high. While riders want the liberty to choose if and when they wear a helmet, the cost appears to be biting them in the wallet.
To be fair, this number is allowing for great potential medical risk. Although motorcycles represent only 3.5% of all registered vehicles in Michigan, 11.8% of all motor fatalities occur as a result of motorcycle use. The amount of lives saved due to wearing a helmet must be factored in, as well.
While helmets do not themselves prevent crashes, they absorb shock that would normally have gone directly to the brain. With a bare skull, injuries sustained from any high-speed impact can take years of expensive rehabilitation treatment. Statewide, doctors and insurance agents alike are watching Lansing with some anxiety.
Costs of medical care for damaging and paralyzing injuries are lifelong, and catastrophic. Although Michigan’s current No-Fault insurance promises complete, unlimited benefits for those involved in a crash (the only state in the Union to do so), should a rider hit a tree or a deer without insurance, every penny will come from the public checkbook or – even worse, out of the victim’s own pocket.
With tax dollars on the line, it’s easy to put that $100,000 in perspective. A few weeks of ER visits could chew that amount up with frightening speed. It becomes clear why those in favor of the helmet law being revoked are now so torn.
Since March, the House of Representatives and the Senate have approved the bill. The only thing that may stop it now is Governor Rick Snyder, who has not publicly given any word about his decision one way or the other. Whether he will veto the bill (as former Gov. Jennifer Granholm did twice in the past) or sign it into existence, only time and the open road will tell.
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