BELLA VISTA — I realize what I am about to venture onto is shaky ground with some of you, but here goes.

Beginning next month, Arkansans will have a new law to abide by - House Bill 1012, which prohibits the drivers of motor vehicles from using hand-held cellular telephones to engage in text messaging.

With so many accidents occurring because people are texting while driving, this is a great law, period.

We already have laws on the books prohibiting our youth, under 18, from using cells phones in any fashion while driving.

This, too, is a great law, period.

Arkansas also has a law that requires every person in a moving motor vehicle to use a seatbelt.

Seatbelts are shown to save lives, so this is a great law, period.

Arkansas does not require a motorcycle rider older than 20 to wear a helmet while operating or riding on a bike.

This is just stupid, plain and simple.

Why is it we can regulate the use of cell phones and seatbelts but not helmets for motorcycles?

What is it about riding a motorcycle without a helmet, besides the freedom of the wind blowing in your hair? I just don't get it.

Seatbelts are shown to save lives. Helmets can do the same thing.

How many stories about fatal motorcycle crashes have you read in which it was noted the rider or riders were not wearing helmets?

Most of the time, the only ones you read about who survived were those whose heads were adequately protected by helmets.

According to a study by the University of Iowa, head injuries are the leading cause of death in motorcycle accidents. Motorcyclists without helmets are 40 percent more likely to experience a fatal head injury and 15 percent more likely to suffer a nonfatal injury in a crash than are motorcyclists with helmets.

The same study determined motorcycle riders are 32 times more likely to die in an accident than people in cars. Maybe it's because people in cars are required by law to wear seatbelts. Makes you wonder, doesn't it.

If a rider survives, there is the medical cost of his or her injuries.

The University of Iowa study found that in 2002, motorcycle helmet use is estimated to have saved $1.3 billion in health-care costs. It is estimated thatan additional $853 million would have been saved if all motorcyclists involved in fatal crashes would have worn helmets.

The University of Southern California, after studying 900 motorcycle crashes, concluded that wearing a helmet is the single most critical factor in preventing or reducing head and neck injuries among motorcycle drivers and passengers.

Also, since 1989, in states that have enacted mandatory helmet laws for all riders, the following reductions in fatalities occurred: Oregon, 33 percent; Texas, 23 percent; California, 31 percent; Nebraska, 32 percent; Washington, 15 percent; and Maryland, 20 percent.

So knowing that, why would anybody ride without protecting their head?

There are those who say helmets reduce their peripheral vision and impact their hearing.

The Iowa study didn't find any truth in that. It stated helmet use has minimal effects on drivers' sight, and the effects on hearing are inconsequential because of the noise level of the motorcycle engine.

In other words, try another argument for going helmetless.

Would somebody please write and tell me and others who don't ride why you want to do it without protecting yourself?

I want to try and understand, but I just can't get my head around it.

My e-mail address is douglasg@nwanews.com.

I and others are waiting to hear from you.

Just so you know, I want to publish your response for the sake of "fair and balanced" journalism, as they say.

We'll need you to sign the document or e-mail and include a phone number for verification purposes only. We won't publish your contact information.

* * *

Grant is the managing editor of The Weekly Vista. He has two decades of experience in writing and editing, having worked in Virginia, North Carolina and Florida before coming to Bella Vista in 2007.

Opinion, Pages 6 on 09/30/2009

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