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If no helmet, the heavy insurance

Ben Roethlisberger wore a helmet at work but not on his motorcycle. Now recovering from a broken jaw and other injuries suffered in a recent accident on his Suzuki, the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback acknowledges that was a mistake. But even as Roethlisberger pledges never to get on a motorcycle again without wearing a helmet, others will argue that one high-profile accident shouldn't force a re-examination of helmet laws.

Then let's look at the bigger picture. After Gov. Jeb Bush signed a law in 2000 that repealed the helmet requirement for adult motorcyclists, the number of deaths involving helmetless riders soared. The newspaper Florida Today reports that federal statistics show the number of Florida motorcycle riders who were not wearing helmets when they were killed soared from 22 in 1999 to 250 in 2004. The number of motorcycle registrations also increased dramatically during the period, but not by nearly the same rate.

Wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle doesn't guarantee the rider won't be killed in an accident. A 22-year-old Largo man was wearing a helmet but died after a crash earlier this month that backed up weekend traffic on the Howard Frankland Bridge. So was a 20-year-old Pinellas Park man who died after losing control of his motorcycle last month on Roosevelt Boulevard. But wearing a helmet certainly improves the odds of survival.

Remember how Florida became one of more than two dozen states that allow adults to ride motorcycles without helmets. Cyclists lobbied in Tallahassee for repeal of the helmet law for years, and legislators finally gave in and included the repeal in a broader transportation bill in 2000 over the objections of doctors and insurers. Now we all pay the price for cyclists who exercise their right to go helmetless and have an accident. Florida law requires motorcyclists who ride without helmets to carry $10,000 of medical insurance, but that doesn't begin to cover the cost of treating serious injuries. Those unpaid medical bills are covered by taxpayers who support public hospitals, or the cost of uncompensated care is passed on to other patients.

Florida lawmakers aren't likely to require all riders in this state to wear helmets again. But the least they can do is require those riders foolish enough to go without to buy enough insurance so the rest of us don't have to pay as much for their hospital bills.

[Last modified June 26, 2006, 05:40:28]