Commentary: Frustration Voiced Over U.S. States’ Unwillingness to Impose Mandatory Helmet Laws

A cry of frustration, over the unwillingness of some U.S. states to impose mandatory motorcycle helmet laws, was published as a commentary in the recent Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Vaca decried how several states have repealed their helmet laws – especially, he writes, since “motorcycle helmet laws are 35% effective in preventing fatalities and 67% effective in preventing brain injuries.”

In the commentary he noted that motorcycle crash fatalities increased dramatically in Arkansas (by 29%), Texas (by 37%), Kentucky (by 58%) and Louisiana (by 109%) in the two years after each state revoked their universal helmet laws.

He also referred to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) document that examined the ramifications of the repeal of Florida’s All-Rider Motorcycle Helmet Law in July 2000. By 2002, Vaca  notes, helmet use rates in Florida had dropped to 53.6% and motorcycle crash fatalities nearly doubled– from 515 deaths between 1997 and 1999, to 933 fatalities from 2001 to 2003. Sixty-one percent of those fatalities were reportedly found to be non-helmeted.

“It is sobering to think that collectively, these untimely deaths represent hundreds of years of potentially productive life lost,” he writes.

Reference: Vaca F. Ann Emerg Med. 2006; 47:204-206.

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