Teen injured in near-fatal crash gets $14.8M

Motorcycle head injuries up sharply since Pa. changed law

From Philly.com:

Motorcycle head injuries have spiked significantly since the state repealed its law requiring riders to wear helmets, a new study released yesterday found.

The study, conducted by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, showed a 32 percent increase in motorcycle-related head-injury deaths and a 42 percent increase in head-injury hospitalizations in the two years following the law's repeal in 2003.

Twenty states - including New Jersey, New York, Maryland and West Virginia - have laws requiring all riders to wear helmets.

But in Pennsylvania, only motorcyclists under 21 and riders with fewer than two years' experience who have not taken a safety course are required to wear helmets.

The average cost to treat a head injury in Pennsylvania is $88,000, according to Clare Collins, a spokeswoman for the University of Pittsburgh's School of Public Health.

Kristen Mertz, the study's lead author, said researchers looked at both head injuries and other types of injuries.

"The relatively large increase in head-injury deaths and hospitalizations after the repeal suggests that the law was protecting riders," she said.

Still, motorcycle activists argue they do not need the government to tell them how to ride.

"The government has a responsibility to individuals, and I think they are overstepping their bounds" when they want to start getting involved in helmet laws, said Charles Umbenhauer, lobbyist for Pennsylvania ABATE, a motorcyclist organization that opposes helmet laws.

In a statement issued yesterday, ABATE called the helmet debate an "endless obsession to market one single item of riding gear as the 'solution' to motorcycle deaths and injuries."