It’s a lie that helmets save motorcyclists’ lives, despite the fact that wearing one is the law in many states. Well, statistics show that solid, approved ones do. However, many riders favor the “pretend” ones? You know, the novelty ones that are not up to federal safety standards. These are called “brain buckets” for obvious reasons or “loophole lids” because, well, Officer, I AM wearing a helmet…. But they are cheaper, lighter, and more comfortable than approved helmets. And the cops can’t readily spot the difference.
Finally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is working on the problem. They are proposing rules to stop the flow of these dangerous helmets from overseas and the Internet and find ways to make it easier for cops to identify them out on the road.
Once new regulations are approved and put into place (it will take two years), NHTSA estimates that 235-481 people will not die annually in states that have helmet laws if everyone who uses novelty helmets switch to approved helmets. Even a small number makes a difference: if 5% – 10% novelty-users switch, 12 – 48 lives would be saved each year.
And that’s not mentioning all the people whose lives are traumatized because they were in an accident where the motorcyclist died because he thought he was being so smart.