Fast Fred's E-mail newsletter,
April 4, 2007
USA Today Stories on Helmet Laws and responses by readers.
I have updated the supporting materials used in court visit the main article at
http://www.fastfreds.com/articles/warofattrition.htm or visit the Statement of
Case brief directly at
http://www.fastfreds.com/articles/brief.pdf
1) USA Today Forums on Helmet Laws
2) Efforts to pass new helmet laws intensify
3) Pro-helmet lobby has been scarce
4) Roach’s Rave (May 2007)
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1) USA Today Forums on Motorcycle Helmet Laws
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Do you ride a motorcycle? Share your helmet experiences, whether they've led
you to be for or against helmet laws. Also, if you don't ride a motorcycle,
give us your opinion. How do you think helmet laws compare to seatbelt laws?
FF Note: Visit either of the following articles online and scoll to the bottom
to comment!
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2) Efforts to pass new helmet laws intensify
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-03-motorcycle-helmet-laws_N.htm
Efforts to pass new helmet laws intensify
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
Lawmakers and safety advocates in eight states are pushing for new motorcycle
helmet laws in a new trend sparked by soaring motorcyclist fatalities and last
year's crash of NFL star Ben Roethlisberger.
The effort to require helmets marks a more controversial approach to
motorcycle safety than previous efforts stressing rider training and motorist
education.
HEATED DEBATE: Emotions run high over helmet laws
Proposed helmet laws have been strongly opposed by rider groups such as
American Bikers Aimed Toward Education (ABATE), which say wearing a helmet
should be a rider's choice. Those groups have helped push 27 states since 1975
to weaken helmet laws by applying them only to young riders.
Now "the balance is shifting," said Melissa Savage, a transportation analyst
at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
"States are beginning to be concerned about the number of people killed in
motorcycle crashes," said Barbara Harsha, head of the Governors Highway Safety
Association, which supports helmet laws.
Motorcycle fatalities soared from 2,116 in 1997 to 4,553 in 2005 as other
roadway deaths declined. Motorcycle riding also grew, but the fatality rate
nearly doubled from 1997 to 2004, according to the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA).
The agency says helmets are "the most effective safety gear" for
motorcyclists. But helmet use dropped from 71% in 2000 to 51% in 2006, NHTSA
says, adding that helmets saved 1,546 lives in 2005.
Harsha said the push for tighter laws also is inspired by Roethlisberger, the
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback who broke facial bones when his motorcycle
collided with a car last June. Roethlisberger wasn't wearing a helmet.
A helmet bill in the Hawaii House calls Roethlisberger's crash "a grim
reminder of how important a helmet is."
Helmet-law proponents say it's a tough fight — bills have been defeated in
five of the states: Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma. After he
introduced Delaware's first mandatory-helmet bill in more than 20 years on
March 14, state Rep. Gary Simpson got e-mails from people vowing to campaign
against his re-election. "It's a very strong lobby," Simpson said.
Colorado state Rep. Diane Primavera expects her helmet bill to be defeated but
vowed to try next year. She said her measure drew attention to Colorado's
status as one of three states with no helmet law. Twenty-seven states require
helmets for riders under a certain age, usually 18 or 21. Twenty require them
for all riders.
Paul Williams, state coordinator of the Helena, Mont., ABATE chapter, who this
winter helped defeat his state's first helmet proposal in a decade, said
helmet laws are inevitable. "I hate to say it, but I think it will eventually
pass," said Williams. "In this country, we're slowly losing our rights for
choice."
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3) Pro-helmet lobby has been scarce
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-04-03-helmet-laws-inside_N.htm
Pro-helmet lobby has been scarce
By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
Tim Hardy still seethes. He seethes at the driver who knocked his son off his
motorcycle, at the police who he says weakly investigated the fatal crash, and
at a motorcyclist group "that didn't want to help us."
Nine months after Miguel Hardy, 24, shattered his skull after flying off a
Harley-Davidson near his Phoenix home, Tim Hardy refuses to blame an Arizona
law that let his son ride helmet-free.
HELMET LAWS SOUGHT:Efforts intensify across U.S.
"If riders don't feel they need one, they shouldn't be told they have to wear
one," said Hardy, an Austin motorcyclist who wears a helmet. "I mean, we are
in the U.S. I served 20 years in the military for our rights."
Hardy's sentiment is amplified by a passionate army of motorcyclists who have
helped repeal helmet laws and constrain federal regulators while enraging
safety advocates. "Legislators and everybody are just scared to death of
them," said Harry Hurt, head of the Helmet Protection Research Lab in California.
The motorcyclists' high-profile campaign, which has led 27 states to weaken
helmet laws since 1975, was coupled with lesser-known lobbying to weaken
federal influence on helmets, said Barbara Harsha, executive director of the
Governors Highway Safety Association, which favors helmet laws.
Motorcyclists pushed Congress to bar the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) from lobbying as state legislatures considered
repealing helmet laws in the late 1990s. The law blocked NHTSA from giving
legislators a video about helmets, Harsha said.
In 2005, when Congress allocated states $25 million for motorcycle safety,
motorcyclists helped ensure the grants cannot be spent on promoting helmets,
Harsha said.
"They're very well organized," Harsha said of the main rider groups — the
American Motorcyclist Association, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation and
American Bikers Aimed Toward Education (ABATE), which has state chapters.
"There isn't a pro-helmet lobby."
NHTSA tabled a proposed 2003 safety study of motorcyclist attitudes and
behavior after rider groups and motorcyclists said a survey of riders would be
inaccurate. Motorcyclist complaints also led NHTSA to drop a phrase from a
2001 safety plan that called motorcycle riding "the most hazardous means of
travel."
"We object strenuously to the sensationalistic spin placed," the riders
foundation wrote.
Many motorcyclists oppose helmet laws because "the very nature of riding a
motorcycle is a feeling of freedom," said Paul Williams of the Helena, Mont.,
ABATE chapter. "People who ride motorcycles tend to be a lot more sensitive
about losing their freedoms."
Pro football star Ben Roethelisberger wasn't wearing a helmet when he collided
with a car on a Pittsburgh street last year.
The latest result of helmet-law opposition has been to stall a landmark study
that motorcyclists themselves say would save lives.
Motorcyclist groups have long sought an in-depth analysis of why riders are
killed. Researchers would rush to the scene of motorcycle crashes to determine
why they occurred. By finding the main causes, the study would urge safety
improvements in anything from training to motorcycle design.
The study was the top priority of a broad motorcycle-safety plan written in
2000 by safety experts, motorcyclists and NHTSA.
When lawmakers in Congress proposed in 2005 that the Department of
Transportation conduct and fund the study, the American Motorcyclist
Association objected.
"We don't want DOT to do the study," association lobbyist Edward Moreland said
in a recent interview. "They want to focus on protective equipment" such as
helmets. The association wanted "an independent third party" to run the study,
Moreland said.
Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., rewrote the bill to force the DOT to hire the
Oklahoma Transportation Center. Inhofe "felt it was the right institution for
the project," his spokesman Ryan Thompson said.
Inhofe's change forced the transportation center to find about $2 million on
its own to help pay for the study. Without that money, the DOT will not give
the center $2 million in federal funds, DOT spokesman Doug Hecox said.
Samir Ahmed, who would lead the study at the Oklahoma center, said he never
asked to do the research and didn't know his organization was chosen until the
study was approved in August 2005. The chances of the study being done are "at
best 50%" because the center cannot find money to pay for the research, Ahmed
said.
Ahmed blamed the motorcycle industry, which pledged to pay the matching funds
last year but has given no money. "I have been in contact with the industry
for almost 10 months to try to get them to pay their share but all that we
hear are good words," Ahmed said. "They are just wasting time."
Ahmed said the money for the study is "trivial" compared to motorcycle company
profits. Harley-Davidson, which makes half the motorcycles sold in the USA,
recently reported a record $1 billion profit on $5.8 billion sales in 2006.
Tim Buche, president of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, made up of
motorcycle manufacturers, said, "The industry has committed to matching" the
federal money. Buche is talking to motorcycle companies "to reassess the
current position" partly because Ahmed is asking for $700,000 more to pay for
additional research beyond the $2.1 million the foundation originally expected
to pay.
Mostly, motorcycle companies want to list conditions the study must follow to
be valid. "It's imperative to have a study we can trust," Buche said. The
industry will pay "as long as those other considerations are met."
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4) Roach’s Rave (May 2007)
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Roach’s Rave (May 2007)
First off I would like to thank everyone on the legislative team for all the
hard work that has been put into the bills of interest. In saying that, a few
of us went to lobby about three weeks ago on a Wednesday. We must have done
pretty well because I got a call from the Governor’s office on Monday the 2nd
of April. The call was to verify the 20 –30 pages of info that I left with his
secretary sitting outside his office, which I explained to her what they were
about and made sure she would give them to the proper persons. I had the
papers held together with a paper clip so I signed the first page placing my
phone #, address and VR #.
This year I wanted to go after bills with a different angle, instead of trying
to argue against the safety issues and the nannies that push these issues I
figured to find and use only Supreme Court decisions to argue different
violations of the constitution I could find hidden in the wording, believe me
every time you read the same bill you will find something else hidden. Once
you have located the violations that are hidden and the potential that would
make the bill unconstitutional, the heat is on to find the Supreme Court
rulings that prove the bill is flawed. Hey when you hit the jackpot its like
your first date or something. Then its time to start writing letters; these
letters are a ruff draft and not what you want to send to your delegates, but
getting your concerns on paper is crucial so you can go back to them and
rewrite them for your delegates; in my case I would post them to the
legislative list and ask for some to help me out with that process while, at
that time, I was putting another letter for the next day to post and ask for
help polishing.
During the time things were at a loll, I got a call from one of my chapter
coordinators to put some stuff together and come speak to some clubs that he
had been talking to about the gang bill; also he asked if I could get Fred to
come along. Anyway The wife and I went to work; we printed every letter that
had been posted on the legislative list, the law firm article, Fred’s article
from his website, Ed’s Muckraker Report, my article I had written for the next
months NL; all in all we put together 40 copies of all this info to take to
the VFW here in Georgetown and to the clubs, about 3 hard nights work, man I
sure am blessed with a good wife. This doesn’t account for the many long hours
done by all in the research to write all this info on paper. If this monster,
the legislative TEAM, were to be paid for the hours that have been spent
working the bills, ABATE would go broke very fast, I know it takes a lot of my
liberty.
Ok back to the phone call from the Governors office. After all the meetings
Fred and myself went to over that weekend delivering info to the troops in the
field, I had about 10 copies left of the info that was put together, so I
figured I would take them with me to lobby that Wednesday. That day I saved 5
copies for me and gave the rest to the other fine troops that showed up that
day to give to their delegates. I gave one to my senator when talking to him
about the issue; also I gave one to my representative and another to one other
rep. in my area. Then it was down to the Governors office to give him one.
Brother Dennis aka Drill sergeant, our Legislative Coordinator, gave me a call
at about the time I was talking with one of my reps so Carla took the message,
telling me I had to go find one more person to talk to; so after leaving the
Governors secretary I found that person, which was the Secretary/Lawyer for
the Judiciary committee.
All right now to the phone call. The gentleman that called said that he wanted
to confirm that the packet I left was from me and did I have anything else
that I wanted to add to it. Well you know me, I couldn’t pass up the chance;
so I started telling him Carman Crawford’s thoughts about how the state was to
hook up with the Fed list and how we believe we are already on that list from
association with the different clubs in the area, making us automatically
suspect under this proposed Gang bill in violation of our first amendment
rights under the constitution, not to say the 4th, 5th, 9th, 14th, and only
God knows how many more. In closing the phone call, which took over thirty
minutes, I asked that if this bill happens to pass the house as it did the
senate and got to his desk, would he please ask Governor Sanford to Veto it?
He said he would and that was about the extent of it.
Now I want to ask, after the screeching halt this bill got when it went to the
House of Representatives for passage, do you wonder if using Supreme Law
instead of just ratting of at the mouth about how you don’t like what a bill
is going to do to you, made a difference? I have never gotten a call from the
governor before until now that I have changed tactics, but I will let you
decide that question. Remember that is how ABATE got the helmet law repealed.
Arguing statistics is useless and a waste of time. However we have Supreme Law
on our side and it just takes a little time to find it. Wonder why stats are
so easy to get when truth in the law of the land is so hard to come by, by design?
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