OMBUDSMAN ALERT EXTRA: Maintain rule that bikers must wear helmets; thousands of lives depend on it

Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, released the following urgent warning to our readers which states, in part:

โ€œMay is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month and Advocates wants to remind all riders that the most important thing you can do to prevent death and devastating injury in a motorcycle crash is to wear a helmet. Motorcycles are the most dangerous form of motor vehicle transportation. Per vehicle miles traveled, motorcyclists are nearly 30 times more likely to die in a traffic crash than occupants of passenger cars.Motorcycle crashes are also on the rise, In 2016, 5,286 were killed, the most fatalities since 2008.

โ€œMotorcycle helmets also save taxpayers billions of dollars every year. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), motorcycle crashes lead to $12.9 billion in economic impacts and $66 billion in social harm annuallyโ€ฆ..NHTSA has found states without universal hemet laws have 11.5 times as many unhelmeted motorcyclist fatalities as states with universal helmet laws.โ€

New York is one of the 19 states in the U.S. that have considered bills to weaken or repeal vital all-rider helmet laws this session. Senate bill 2381 has proposed removing the requirement to wear a helmet for those over 21. These measures are irresponsible at best and deadly at worst!

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