Originally published at: Lawyer in Florida who fought against helmet laws killed on motorcycle while not wearing a helmet | Boing Boing
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Another one for the FAAFO file. In his death he’ll stand as an example for those he fought against in life (but, alas, not for his fellow death cultists).
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Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
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ER personnel have call motorcycles donor-cycles for a reason.
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Well, at least he did manage to live up to “American Bikers Aimed Toward Education” - this is certainly quite educational. One might even say he was aimed toward it while moving at quite high velocity.
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That doesn’t seem like nearly enough coverage to care for a paraplegic’s lifetime needs. Which of course means the financial burden of serious injuries would fall to government programs like Medicaid, disability benefits, etc.
If the only possible consequences to a serious motorcycle crash was an instantaneous fatality to the driver with no collateral damage or social costs, then you could perhaps make a coherent libertarian argument that helmets were purely a matter of personal responsibility and nobody else’s business. But a hell of a lot of people in crashes suffer different fates.
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You are something like 38x more likely to die per mile driven by motorcycle vs. car.
If you’re a sane motorcycle rider, you’re only [guessing wildly] 4x more likely, but there have got to be crazy riders to balance that out, maybe toward the 80-100x range?
Have fun. See you at the trauma center!
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In NY, standard auto insurance won’t cover injuries to drivers or riders of motorcycles or any “limited use” vehicles like electric bikes, mopeds or scooters which can go more than 20 MPH. They are considered too risky from actuarial POV. Serious injuries are too likely in even the most minor accidents.
Motorcycle insurance covering injuries is a special type and generally costly.
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Meh. Sucks to be him.
Honestly, I don’t care if people wear helmets or not. I think you are a complete idiot for not wearing a helmet on a motorcycle, but then again I have never worn a bike helmet. Though in my defense, back when I rode a bike NO ONE wore a helmet unless you were like into racing bikes.
Though, I’d also never ride a motorcycle. Oh sure, they are fun. I get it. I just don’t think the added risk is worth it. I know too many people who died or got hurt riding motorcycles, including my mom (who was hurt when she was young.)
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No man is an island. The driver of the pickup that they crashed into didn’t ask for this. The EMTs didn’t want to deal with an avoidable road death. The other drivers in the traffic likely saw gore they didn’t want to see.
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I “back road” without a helmet, we’re talking way out in the middle of the Mojave bum-f@ck nowhere. Never would I dare to ride on the streets without my pudding bucket.
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Average cost for an ER visit is $3,300, inpatient hospital stay is 57,000, depending which study you look at. 10k is chickenfeed in the US medical system.
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Sure, but you could say that about motorcycles in general. They are so much more likely to be in a fatal accident, even wearing a helmet. A helmet just gives you a better chance in a minor accident.
So do things like leather and padded suits. But usually it is only the street bike types who wear those. Retired guys on Harleys just let it all hang out.
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Give the man credit, this was in fact the hill he was willing to die on…
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This this this.
I don’t care if any of these bros wants to off themselves. Go nuts.
What these clowns don’t get is that accidents like this have a cost to society. We all pay for the police, fire-rescue, ambulances, investigations, autopsies, etc that go with an accident like this. Then there’s therapy for loved ones, lost productivity from the person who dies and those grieving, and other economic impacts. Not to mention the disruption on roadways to everyone else as the area has to be blocked off for a long time so everything can be documented, etc.
Nobody is an island. Everyone’s actions affect all of us, and that’s why things like helmet laws exist. Deaths cost society in myriad ways, and the government’s job is partly to reduce deaths for this reason.
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I started my career as a PICU doc. At WVU we didn’t see a lot of knife-and-gun injuries, but motorcycles were every fucking day. ICU time does not come cheap. Follow on care is unbelievably expensive. Almost all of that eventually fell on either Medicaid or charity care. IOW, on the public dollar. I point this out to any anti-helmet idiots I can. It’s fine if you don’t wear a helmet, but make sure you have your DNR (and organ donor info) tattooed on your chest.
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