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The Safety Laws Of Motorcycle Helmets

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We have laws here in the United States requiring seat belts, air bags, child car seats, smoke detectors, lights on bicycles operated at night, and a whole range of other safety devices. So, it makes sense that there would be a safety law in place to protect the motorcycle riders as well. When a motorcycle is a vehicle operated on a public roadway, its rider and passenger is subject to the same rights and obligations as other vehicle operators traveling on the same roads. If it is reasonable to require car seats for children, airbags in vehicles and the use of car seatbelts, requiring motorcycle helmets is also reasonable. Starting in at least the 1920’s, motorcycle racers were already using crash helmets. Motorcycle helmets became more …show more content…

The arguments stated the helmet laws violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, constituted an infringement on the motorcyclist’s liberty and an excessive use of the state’s police power, violated the due process, equal protection and right to privacy provisions of the federal constitution, and was discriminatory against motorcyclists. (Bayer) Yet others put up the argument that helmets would increase spinal cord injuries, make it harder for the riders to see or hear as well and that the helmets were too hot to wear. (Knudson) In 1975, following tremendous pressure, national lobbying and a hearing held in July by the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation to discuss the National Safety Act, representatives and senators began to support revisions to remove the connection between federal highway construction funding and the state helmet laws. (Knudson & Bayer) On May 5, 1976 President Ford signed a bill making those revisions a reality. (Bayer) In this aspect, the motorcyclists were in a way, following the advice of Thoreau in Civil Disobedience when he said “Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight.” In this instance, that whole weight enacted the change they were seeking. Over the next three

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