First, I’d like to address a few incorrect statements made by the Daily and Mr. Blaedel regarding motorcycles and their laws.

There are four states with no enforceable helmet laws (not three), New Hampshire being the fourth. Of the remaining 46, 19 do not require helmets for adults, and four more do not for those over 21. To leave out this additional information is deceiving the readers.

Motorcycles traveling at reasonable speeds can stop much faster than any car.

A vehicle with less than a third the mass of another stops more quickly than another at the same speed.

People going 150 mph obviously have no concern for either their safety or how quickly they can stop in an emergency, anyhow.

As for the helmet law issue itself, it is a matter of freedom vs. safety. I think Benjamin Franklin speaks my opinion best:

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Throw all the statistics and gory photos at people as you want, but in the end, let the people you are targeting decide.

Many helmet laws of the past decades, including Iowa’s, were not decided by the people.

It was the result of the threat of withholding government funding. And when that threat disappeared, so did the law.

“The last time somebody tried to put a helmet law in Iowa, they got dusted so bad that the chances of the subject even coming up again during this century are, at best, a long shot.”

Lobbyists? Please tell me what lobbying group, other than the riders themselves, benefit from repealing a helmet law. It’s our choice.

Jeff Hughes

Senior

Computer science