Helmet battle simmers anew

A month after the state's helmet-optional law went into effect, activists on both sides say the fight isn't over.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD and JANE MEINHARDT

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 3, 2000

For eight years running, motorcycle activists fought to get rid of Florida's mandatory helmet law. They kept losing and losing, but they always vowed to return and fight again.

This year they won. Florida motorcyclists can ride without helmets, and now it is the doctors, insurers and safety advocates who fought unsuccessfully to save the helmet law who are saying, "Wait till next year."

Florida got rid of its mandatory helmet law only a month ago, and already several motorcycle riders without helmets have died -- most recently, a man and woman on a Harley-Davidson that crashed Tuesday night on Clearwater's Memorial Causeway.

It's too early to tell whether the change in the law is leading to more deaths. But both sides of the helmet law debate are planning ahead for Round Two -- another battle next spring in the Legislature.

"The issue is definitely not dead," said Diane Jones of AAA Auto Club South in Tampa. "We lobbied strongly against the helmet law repeal, as we've done every year. We'll be back next year because we want to see the helmet law back on the books. It's just too important."

James "Doc" Reichenbach, a motorcycle-rights lobbyist, will be ready.

"We want the law to stay exactly the way it is," said Reichenbach, who lobbied to make helmets optional. "But I imagine there are a couple of senators right now, right there in Tampa and St. Petersburg, who are chomping at the bit to put a bill in."

Reichenbach is president of the Florida chapter of ABATE, a motorcycle advocacy group. Since the law changed July 1, he estimates he has seen about 25 percent of riders go bareheaded.

Both sides will keep a close eye on Florida motorcycle deaths, although it's not clear yet whether the law is making a difference.

The state collects information on motorcycle crashes, but its statistics are a couple of months behind because it takes that long to get all the data from law enforcement agencies, said Florida Highway Patrol Maj. Ken Howes.

Even then, the state will be able to say how many motorcyclists have died -- the average was 159 each year over the past three years -- and how many of them were wearing helmets. But it won't be able to say how many helmetless riders would have been saved by a helmet.

Often, it's not immediately clear whether a helmet would have done any good. That's the case in a crash that killed two riders Tuesday night in Clearwater.

The motorcyclist was David L. Rengert, 49, a building contractor from Indian Rocks Beach. His passenger was Sherri M. Valery, 36, a waitress who lived with her young son in Oldsmar.

Rengert lost control of his new Harley-Davidson Deuce on Memorial Causeway as he headed west into a curve just past Island Way, police said. The speed limit on the curve is 40 mph, dropping to 30 mph on the bridge beyond the curve.

"Based on witnesses' accounts and the evidence, his speed probably was in the neighborhood of 65 mph," said police spokesman Wayne Shelor.

The Harley hit a guardrail, catapulting the riders over the rail as the cycle skidded another 100 yards.

The two suffered extensive injuries and died at the scene. Neither was wearing a helmet. Autopsies were incomplete Wednesday.

"When the wreck happened, a bad storm was approaching from the east," Shelor said. "It's pure speculation, but it's possible he was hurrying toward home and trying to beat the weather."

Judy Kindel, office manager at Jim's Harley-Davidson in St. Petersburg, said Rengert was an experienced rider who bought the new bike in April.

She scoffed at police statements concerning Rengert's speed, saying police and the St. Petersburg Times are trying to "pick on" changes in the state's helmet law.

"It's a matter of choice and the freedom to make a choice," Kindel said.

Sherri Valery's ex-husband said her son, 12-year-old Jonathan, called late Tuesday night to say he hadn't heard from his mother since 4 p.m.

"That's really unlike Sherri," Bert Valery said. "She would be calling him. I remember dating her, she would call the babysitter four times a night."

So he drove to his ex-wife's apartment to bring Jonathan to his home overnight.

"We were thinking the worst," he said. "So it wasn't really a surprise when the police came."

In several recent crashes, authorities think a helmet would have saved a life:

"Big John" Dedomenico, 51, a St. Petersburg car mechanic, died of massive head injuries after he was thrown from his Harley-Davidson on July 16 on Fifth Avenue N. Police think a helmet could have prevented his skull fractures. Friends said he always used to wear a helmet.

Lynette Rushton of Fort Myers, who had applauded the new helmet-free law, died Monday from a crash that she probably would have survived with a helmet, the FHP said. She had recently opened Helmet Hair, a salon with a motorcycle motif.

Other times, a helmet would have made no difference.

Ivan Girard, 59, a St. Petersburg construction supervisor, suffered head injuries in a motorcycle crash July 1 on Fourth Street N. But an autopsy found that he died of massive chest injuries.

Florida is allowing riders who are 21 years old or older to go helmetless if they have $10,000 of personal injury coverage. Progressive Insurance, which may be the only Florida company offering that kind of insurance policy, got inundated with calls.

"We saw a significant increase in those policies sold in the month of June," said Progressive spokeswoman Kathleen Colan, "but the pace is back to normal now."

-- Times staff writer Mattias Karen contributed to this report.

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