This is a follow-up to a recent post we did on motorcycle accidents.
In our December 17 post, we wrote about the effects of Michigan's recent relaxation of its motorcycle helmet requirements. We made the point that deaths in motorcycle accidents went up in 2012 after the law was changed.
In this follow-up post, our point will be that the issue of helmet use has to be put into the larger context of road safety.
After all, collisions between motorcyclists and other motorists are often due to the fact that those motorists fail to share the road properly with motorcycles. There are also many motorcyclists who believe in good faith that wearing helmets impinges on their vision and hearing while riding their cycles – and hence impinges on their ability to drive safely.
That is why a respected safety organization, the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), includes multi-faceted motorcycle awareness programs in its agenda for preventing motorcycle accidents.
Such programs do not only promote helmet use. They also do such things as encouraging proper licensing and safety training and discouraging the use of alcohol or drugs while riding.
Multi-faceted safety programs also promote the use of ways to make motorcyclists more visible to other motorists. This could include, for one thing, greater use of conspicuous clothing by motorcyclists.
After all, car drivers often use the excuse that they “just didn’t see” a motorcyclist until it was too late. More conspicuous clothing for cyclists, and better training for all motorists on how to share the road safely, should help address the failures of vision that cause so many motorcycle accidents.
Source: Governors Highway Safety Association, "Motorcycle Safety"