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Abstract
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Since the decision by the United States House of Representatives 1,2) in 1975 to prevent the U.S. Department of Transportation from requiring mandatory motorcycle helmet legislation, 29 states repealed or significantly modified their statutes to allow the use of motorcycles without head protection. In the latter half of the 1970s, four states studied the impact of this repeal in detail. The compilation of these studies as reported by McSwain and Petrucelli, formulated the following conclusions:
"Head, neck and face injuries were all higher for helmetless riders: 369.4 injuries/1,000 helmetless drivers, or nearly three times the rate of 129.1 injuries for riders wearing a helmet. Furthermore, helmetless riders had a rate of neck injury 1.3 times greater than the rate for helmeted riders (38.1 compared to 28.3)."
"The rate of occurrence of AIS 6 (unsurvivable) for helmetless riders was 23.5, or 2.8 times greater than the rate of 8.5 injuries/1,000 involvements for helmeted riders. For AIS 5 (critical), the rate of occurrence for helmetless riders was 14.7 or 16.3 times the rate of 0.9 for helmeted riders, and for AIS 4 (serious), 14.7 compared to 4.7 (no helmet vs. helmet). The helmet usage rate among fatally injured riders was less than half the rate among nonfatally injured riders. Again, the rates were significantly different."
"Of 27 persons who received fatal injuries while not wearing a helmet, 22 received their most severe injury to the head. Of ten helmeted fatalaties, five received their most severe injury to the head."
"Helmet usage is significantly less where use is not mandatory."
"Helmets significantly decrease head injury death and disability."
"Head injury death and disability increase when the laws are repealed."
"The crash rate is higher when helmets are not worn."
"The cost of medical care for a non-helmeted rider is more than twice that of a helmeted rider."
"The amount of permanent disability is significantly increased when helmets are not worn."
The concluding statement from the Kansas study is probably more demonstrative of the impact of motorcycle helmet repeal than any other: "The pattern is clear. The impact of the Kansas motorcycle helmet law has been extremely costly in terms of debilitating injuries, death, and financial burdens. If personal freedom is the issue here, and that is debatable, the people of the state of Kansas are paying a high price for this particular study in terms of financial assistance and loss of life and limb".
Were these conclusions valid? In 1981, Louisiana became the first and only state (to date) to re-enact mandatory helmet legislation. This re-enactment, which took effect January 1, 1982, provided a unique opportunity to study the impact of the reinstitution of this legislation in order to see if the trends confirmed in the earlier studies were reversed.
This report to the American Association for Automotive Medicine is a summary of that study funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation. This report presents only the highlights of that research effort. The total report with its in-depth analysis and large data base is available from the U.S. Department of Transportation. (DOT Contract No. DTN22-82-C-05086).
The results of this study compare one year of non-helmet legislation versus one year of helmet legislation (1981 vs. 1982); and the same two years of helmet usage versus non-helmet usage (1981 and 1982). Helmet usage, injury and fatality rates and financial impact are reported.
Language: en |