A Gopper On A Chopper?

I posted about this awhile back, but considering this story, it looks like it’s time to do so again.

Maybe in my tawdry, unkempt liberal blogger elitism, there are some things I am just not going to be able to understand, and one of those things is why anyone would ride a motorcycle without wearing a helmet.

I mean, I have to buckle my seat belt when I drive along with everyone else, right? Couldn’t I just say to the police officer who pulls me over and writes a ticket that I thought the seat belt impinged on my personal freedom, so I decided not to wear it?

Why do I have to obey the law but motorcycle riders don’t (in PA anyway, and helmet laws have been weakened in 26 other states since 1975, as noted in the USA Today story)?

This gives us more than a hint, I think…

"They're very well organized," (Barbara) Harsha (of the Governors Highway Safety Association) said of the main rider groups — the American Motorcyclist Association, the Motorcycle Riders Foundation and American Bikers Aimed Toward Education (ABATE), which has state chapters (they advocate to repeal the motorcycle helmet laws). "There isn't a pro-helmet lobby."

That’s right. And I think it’s because the majority of people in this country don’t think a pro-common sense lobby should be necessary (at least we don’t until stories like this come along).

And if a motorcycle rider not wearing a helmet suffers something terrible on the road, then I must tell you that my sympathy only goes so far. I’m sorry for Tim Hardy and his terrible loss (and if he feels he has been wronged in the investigation, then he should talk to a lawyer), but his son chose not to wear the helmet. Nobody commanded him to do that, and I have to dodge the same vehicles motorcycles do.

Also, why did I know that Jim Inhofe was involved in this somehow? As noted below…

When lawmakers in Congress proposed in 2005 that the Department of Transportation conduct and fund the study (regarding motorcycle safety), the American Motorcyclist Association objected.

"We don't want DOT to do the study," association lobbyist Edward Moreland said in a recent interview. "They want to focus on protective equipment" such as helmets. The association wanted "an independent third party" to run the study, Moreland said.

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., rewrote the bill to force the DOT to hire the Oklahoma Transportation Center. Inhofe "felt it was the right institution for the project," his spokesman Ryan Thompson said.

Inhofe's change forced the transportation center to find about $2 million on its own to help pay for the study. Without that money, the DOT will not give the center $2 million in federal funds, DOT spokesman Doug Hecox said.

Samir Ahmed, who would lead the study at the Oklahoma center, said he never asked to do the research and didn't know his organization was chosen until the study was approved in August 2005. The chances of the study being done are "at best 50%" because the center cannot find money to pay for the research, Ahmed said.

Ahmed blamed the motorcycle industry, which pledged to pay the matching funds last year but has given no money. "I have been in contact with the industry for almost 10 months to try to get them to pay their share but all that we hear are good words," Ahmed said. "They are just wasting time."

Ahmed said the money for the study is "trivial" compared to motorcycle company profits. Harley-Davidson, which makes half the motorcycles sold in the USA, recently reported a record $1 billion profit on $5.8 billion sales in 2006.

So Inhofe steered the motorcycle safety study to an Oklahoma agency that Inhofe knew would not be able to conduct it because it didn’t have enough money to qualify for matching federal DOT funds?

The man is truly pond scum.

So before I start getting flamed here, let me point out that, just because some person or group shouts louder than anyone, it doesn’t make them right.

And if you involve me in a road accident and you’re not wearing a helmet, expect me to cut you no slack whatsoever.

One more thing (in a strange coincidence, I’ll admit) – today would have been the 59th birthday of a rock n’ roller who met his end in a motorcycle accident.