Helmet Laws

There is no doubt that motorcycle helmets save lives and prevent injuries from being more serious than what they could be without this form of protection.

I think what irritates most riders is being told that they have to wear one, but that's a different issue altogether. Statistics prove that helmets are beneficial to safety and that your personal choice to wear one, or not, can only be exercised in jurisdictions that do not have mandatory helmet laws.

All provinces in Canada require a helmet to be worn while operating or being a passenger on a motorcycle law. the following are legally acceptable helmets in this country.

• U.S. DOT certification based on FMVSS 218
• SNELL certification (see below)
• ECE Regulation 22.05 certification

So, here are some stats for you on accidents involving motorcycles.

• In non fatal motorcycle injuries by primary body part injured, neck and head injuries accounted for 22%, second only to leg and foot injuries at 30%.
• 74% of motorcyclists involved in accidents were wearing helmets ( of course, most motorcyclists either must wear a helmet by law or chose to wear one even when it is not mandatory
• no helmet accident death rates are triple those of helmet wearing accidents, even though in this particular statistical survey, the number of accidents with no helmets were about 1/3 the number of accidents involving helmet wearing riders.
• For non-fatality accidents, most statistics were about the same for no injury, possible injury and non-incapacitating injuries, but the incapacitating injuries were 1½ times higher.

Every state in the U.S.has their won helmet laws, with some mandating helmet use, some with age restrictions, and even one that states you must wear a helmet if you have less than $10,000 in medical coverage, like $10,000 in the U.S would do much for a hospital stay.

Of course, there has been some controversy over the latest changes to this Canadian law in certain provinces which allows members of the Sikh religion to ride without a helmet. Good for them is all I can say, and it really is not an issue to me if they do or don't wear this form of protection. It's their head which will roll if there's an accident, literally and figuratively.

How do you think this person's head would have fared during this accident had they not been wearing their brain bucket?

I've been riding a motorcycle in some of the places where there are no mandatory helmet laws and sometimes rode with, sometimes without, a helmet. It was nice to be helmet-less when the temperature was 42° C on the pavement, though it was always on the back of my mind that if something were to happen, goodbye skull ( and mine is pretty thick!! haha)

Greg Fancisco hit a deer and suffered 8 broken ribs, a shattered collarbone, compound fractures in his hand, a bruised heart and lungs, a pulled groin, and NO HEAD INJURY, though he'll need to buy a new helmet