Choice to wear or not wear motorcycle helmet threatened by NTSB

[penguinsscareme]

Heard on WBZnewsradio.com this morning: the NTSB intends to enact a nationwide helmet law, taking yet another of the state's prerogatives to the federal level.  Can't find any links as of yet.

[Raineyrocks]

Last time I checked, our country is called the United States....not the United-Pussified Under Fed-States. We are States who have banded together, we are a union of states....who the f-ck do the feds think they are?? They are nothing, the fed gov't has nothing. Show me their land, show me their citizens. I mean, yeah, they are "everything" because they have all the power and money....but jesus, WE are the people, WE are the States. I wish they would have tried to pull this kind of shit when people still had, well, really the dignity to be insulted if someone told them that they didn't have sense enough to decide for themselves if they should wear a freakin' helmet!  These fools are wasting time and money with these shenanigans. Damn it, they are on MY fucking payroll and they don't freakin' act like it.

Good grief. Nothing, and I mean nothing, makes me more angry than States Rights issues.....NOTHING. States Rights are crucial. The only way we;re going to be safe in the Shire is if our leadership makes the decision not to roll over and play sally to the feds...who wants to take a bet that Gov Lynch has already put on his skirt and is preparing to bend over and take it like a treasonous bastard.

   

[Ogre]

Last time I checked, our country is called the United States

I suggest you check again.  States have NO rights and have not since the war between the states.  A law like this will not actually be a federal law, probably.  Instead, the fed will just do what they always do:

We will stop giving any state cash for roads if they don't pass the laws we want them to.

Last time I checked, every single state bowed down and accepts the bribe.  This is how DUI laws got passed in states that didn't want them.  This is how "open container" laws got passed where they were not wanted.  And this is how helmet laws will get jammed down the throats of places like South Carolina and New Hampshire -- unless the state has the guts to stand up and tell the feds where to shove their money -- and I'm not holding my breath (yet...)

[JonM]

NH loses money for not enacting a seatbelt law the feds like.

[J’raxis 270145]

Indeed, NH has opted out of several federal mandates like this already.

[NHRes2004]

Panel Urges Mandatory Motorcycle Helmets
By KEN THOMAS – 22 hours ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — States should require motorcycle riders to wear proper helmets, government investigators urged Tuesday as part of several recommendations that seek to stem a steady rise in motorcycle deaths.

Members of the National Transportation Safety Board unanimously approved the motorcycle safety recommendations, wading into a contentious issue that has pitted motorcycle rights' groups against safety organizations in many states.

"The simple act of donning that helmet can begin the process of preventing that type of fatality and serious injury," said NTSB chairman Mark V. Rosenker.

As motorcycle riding has become more popular, motorcycle deaths have more than doubled since 1997. In 2006, motorcycle deaths increased for the ninth straight year, to 4,810 motorcycle deaths, compared with 4,576 in 2005.

NTSB officials noted that non-helmeted riders were three times more likely to suffer a brain injury in a crash than those wearing a helmet.

Motorcycle groups questioned the ability of helmets to provide complete protection and prevent internal injuries in a crash. They said more rider education programs are needed.

"If a truck pulls out in front of you and runs a stop sign, how is that helmet going to prevent an accident?" asked Steve Rector, state coordinator for ABATE Iowa, a motorcycle rights' group. He also noted that motorcycle registrations and the number of miles traveled by motorcyclists have increased in recent years.

Judith Lee Stone, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said there was "no scientific evidence that motorcycle rider training reduces crash risk and is an adequate substitute for an all-rider helmet law."

Currently, 20 states and the District of Columbia require riders to wear protective helmets, a significant change since the late 1970s, when nearly every state required helmet use. Twenty-seven states only cover some riders, typically those under 21.

Three states — Iowa, Illinois and New Hampshire — have no helmet laws.

In six states that repealed their universal laws beginning in 1997 — Arkansas, Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Florida and Pennsylvania — helmet use plummeted following the repeal of the laws, NTSB officials said. Louisiana reinstated its mandatory requirement in 2004.

The agency also recommended that federal safety officials develop a plan for states and others to improve motorcycle safety and the government develop guidelines for states to gather accurate data on riders.

The NTSB only has the power to make recommendations, but its staff and board members personally lobby for changes the board considers most important.


On the Net:
National Transportation Safety Board: http://www.ntsb.gov

[NHRes2004]

NH does have a helmet law - it's just that RSA 265:122(III) nullifies it if the Fed currently does not require helmets for funds.

RSA 265:122
    265:122 Protective Headgear. –
    I. No person less than 18 years of age may drive or ride upon a motorcycle unless he wears protective headgear of a type approved by the director. Such headgear shall be equipped with either a neck or chin strap.
    II. The director is hereby authorized and empowered to adopt rules pursuant to RSA 260:5 covering the types of protective headgear and the specifications therefor and to establish and maintain a list of approved headgear which meet his established specifications.
    III. If federal law is altered so that the mandatory wearing of protective headgear on motorcycles by persons less than 18 years of age is not required as a condition to the receipt by the state of any federal funds, paragraphs I and II shall be void.
    IV. Any motorcycle operator who transports a person under the age of 18 years, when such person is in violation of paragraph I, shall be guilty of a violation.
Source. RSA 263:29-b. 1967, 443:1. 1977, 173:1. 1981, 146:1. 1990, 79:7, eff. June 9, 1990.

[Little Owl]

We need a law/amendment prohibiting withholding federal funds arbitrarily.  That is, unless they're willing to absolve NH residents of that same percentage of their federal income tax.  If they did, I'd be all for it.

[error]

No, we need to prohibit the taking of funds by the federal government for redistribution.

[J’raxis 270145]

We need a law/amendment prohibiting withholding federal funds arbitrarily.  That is, unless they're willing to absolve NH residents of that same percentage of their federal income tax.  If they did, I'd be all for it.

I suggested at one point that New Hampshire should enact a law that states that no other laws shall be enacted in order to merely comply with federal mandates. Considering that we'd need this law to be "higher" than other laws, this may need to be an amendment to the state constitution, and not merely just another RSA.

This would take care of all of the extant and future federal-mandate crap all at once.

[d_goddard]

It is widely understood in Concord that you piss off the bikers by proposing a helmet law, and that if you piss off the bikers, they show up at the State House en masse and make the nightly news in a way no legislator wants to be painted. That's why we don't have a helmet law.

We are close to a point where we can do that with other freedom-related issues -- like we did on March 15th, 2007. If a bigger group comes each time, you can be damn sure the NH legislature will take notice.

When it comes to the Feds, all bets are off. Damn stupid and incompetent.

[penguinsscareme]

It is widely understood in Concord that you piss off the bikers by proposing a helmet law, and that if you piss off the bikers, they show up at the State House en masse and make the nightly news in a way no legislator wants to be painted.

Unless by some cruel twist of fate one of the bikers dies en route because he wasn't wearing a helmet.

[ducks and runs]

[Puke]

The name of the country should be changed from the United States of America to just  The State of America.

[J’raxis 270145]

The name of the country should be changed from the United States of America to just  The State of America.

A far more subtler change, similar to this, already occurred. Prior to Lincoln's war, United States was grammatically a plural noun ("The United States are ..." vs. "The United States is ..."). It slowly shifted to a singular noun in the late nineteenth century.

[d_goddard]

A far more subtler change, similar to this, already occurred. Prior to Lincoln's war, United States was grammatically a plural noun ("The United States are ..." vs. "The United States is ..."). It slowly shifted to a singular noun in the late nineteenth century.

I think you'll like one of Dan Itse's bills this session. Something about changing two words in the Oath of Office to restore the sovereign constitutional republic that is NH. Very Marpleish. I don't get it.