 Riding a motorcycle can be a lot of fun, and motorcyclists and their friends enjoy getting together and riding. But unfortunately, statistics show that motorcycles are not the safest mode of transportation. Motorcyclists are 16 times more likely to die for every mile they ride than someone driving a car. 80% of police reported motorcycle crashes result in injury or death. 2,100 motorcyclists are killed and 56,000 are injured in crashes every year. Over 50% of all fatal motorcycle crashes involved another motor vehicle. Although these statistics are compelling, there are ways to protect riders and lower the risks associated with riding. Experts know that the best way to keep motorcyclists safe is by a comprehensive approach that focuses on preventing crashes, reducing injuries, and providing for rapid emergency medical response if a crash occurs. Rider education courses taught by trained instructors give riders the skills they need to safely operate a motorcycle in all kinds of road and weather conditions. Obtaining a motorcycle operator's license certifies the rider's skill in performing basic handling skills. All 50 states require riders to obtain a motorcycle license. Riding alcohol and drug-free is still another part of preventing crashes. Because riding a motorcycle involves intense focus and coordination, riding under the influence of any alcohol or other drugs decreases the operator's ability to ride safely. Working to prevent crashes by training and licensing riders is an important step, but when crashes occur and they will, perhaps through no fault of the rider, riders need to be protected from injury. Wearing the right kind of gear can protect the rider and reduce the potential severity of injuries. Leather jackets, pants, and gloves all protect the rider from road rash. But the simple act of wearing a helmet is the most effective measure a rider can take to prevent what can often be life-threatening injuries. There is clear, irrefutable scientific evidence. This has been proven over and over again. It does not need to be proven anymore that you are much more likely to suffer a serious brain injury if you're not wearing a helmet than if you are. Finally, rapid and appropriate emergency response after a crash occurs is also important. Trained emergency medical service personnel provide life support at the scene and during transport to the optimal emergency care facility. Their expertise can save lives. All of the elements of the comprehensive approach are important to make riding safer for motorcyclists. But experts recognize that the most important factor affecting rider's safety is wearing a helmet and the proven way to get all riders to wear their helmets is through a law. And that's because riding a motorcycle is not like riding in a car. In an automobile, a driver is actually protected by the car. The door beams, roof, seat belts, and airbags. A car is stable because it's on four wheels. If a crash occurs, occupants have some protection. That's not the case with a motorcycle. The vehicle provides no protection in the event of a crash. The rider can be thrown from the bike, strike anything in his path, and always the ground. His body and often his head takes the blows and the results can be devastating. But there is a solution. Helmets reduce the likelihood of serious head injuries and often prevent death in a crash. These helmets decrease not only fatalities, they decrease, even with head injuries, they decrease the time you're in the ICU, they decrease the time of unconsciousness, and they decrease the amount of subsequent brain injury residual. We can look at motorcycle helmets like a vaccine for brain injury for motorcyclists. People that use the vaccine, the helmet, are much less likely to have a brain injury than people that don't, just like any other vaccine that we provide to all of our population. Bob Korcek doesn't remember anything about his motorcycle crash, but he still has the helmet that saved his life. The actual motorcycle crash itself, I remember nothing about. Just from reading and all the reports that were done on it. It was August 27th, about 9.30, and I was coming from an after-work friend's meeting we had. I remember having his house and I was run over by a drunk driver. I must have got off the bike. That's only the accident recreation people can estimate as I got off the bike and let it go because it was just knocked into the woods. And I was pinned underneath the hood of his Ford Bronco 2 from the shoulders down. I can honestly say that the helmet saved my life. Emergency medical services know that when they're called to the scene of a motorcycle crash, there might be chaos and the injuries may be serious and life-threatening. Their job is to provide the best care for the patient and root to the hospital. A serious motorcycle crash can really be a very difficult situation. They can have multiple injuries, a lot of broken bones, a lot of bad road rash and scrapes if they're not wearing appropriate protective gear. And of course, if they're not wearing a helmet, their head can be really very badly injured. Well, the most mild problem somebody would have is what we call a concussion, which is a temporary loss of neurologic function so that someone might have a head injury and be unconscious for an hour and then wake up and the next day be totally normal. The most severe types can leave you in coma for weeks and leave you totally unaware and unresponsive forever. Unlike the road rash that you get from scraping along the concrete that'll usually heal up pretty well on its own. Your brain doesn't heal well. And all that you can do is hope that what's left will take up some of the previous function and if too much is injured you usually don't have enough to take up previous function and the next thing you know you can't walk or can't think or can't speak, can't care for yourself. The recovery process for a crash victim can vary tremendously. The process of recovery can be very long, frequently starting with coma, starting then to an agitated phase where people are very difficult to manage because they're very confused, starting to regroup and then sometimes getting back to almost normal. But that's not always the case so it could be stalled anywhere along that process. The family often suffers the most as they wonder how or when their loved one may recover. To have somebody in an accident is always devastating to the family and the people around them, sometimes even worse than the patient who's involved. Patient frequently doesn't have an awareness or may not have an awareness. The family agonizes day in and day out. Getting out of the hospital is just the first step. The victim usually has to go through intense rehabilitation just to begin to regain his or her strength and the cost of rehabilitation can be overwhelming. The range in actual acute hospital expenses can range from hundreds of thousands of dollars down to maybe 30 to 50 thousand dollars. And the lifetime costs can be rather substantial in the tune of millions of dollars for these patients. Doug Wilson considers himself lucky. When he was involved in a motorcycle crash five years ago, he was just 22 and in his senior year of college. Then his world changed and would never be the same again. I have been riding motorcycles since 1987, 1988. And then March 23rd, 1991 is when I had first time I dropped it, first time I ever been in any kind of accident, first time I ever broke a bone. What was that like? I spent eight days in a coma and I spent a total of 85 days in a hospital. I had down to about 115 pounds. When I came out of the coma I couldn't walk, talk, I couldn't sit up in a bed, I couldn't do anything. They had IVs and everything. I mean, I was even in diapers again. I was a newborn again. Most people grow up once. I had to do it twice. I was not wearing my helmet when I had the crash. I was a college student. I was invincible. I was young. It was never going to happen to me. Sometimes I wore it. Sometimes I didn't. It wasn't a law. It wasn't mandatory. I didn't wear it that particular evening. And that night things changed. I broke two bones, two other bones. I broke three total. One with my pinky. The other two with the orbit to my eye and my cheekbone was shattered. And I have metal here and here. And so most of it was to my head. You know, we've all heard of the million dollar man. Well, I'm the half of the million dollar man. My message about helmets, I think everybody should be required to wear a helmet. And I say that to people like, that's my right. I can choose this and that. And I hear all the time. That's right. But the thing is that it doesn't affect your shoe. No one's an island. But when you do something that affects many other people, you don't have that right. Helmet laws that require all riders to wear their helmets have proven to reduce injury and death in every state where they've been enacted. And they end up saving taxpayers millions of dollars that would go to support crash victims in their recovery. The numbers are compelling. And helmet laws have proven to be so effective because when they're in effect, almost 100% of riders wear their helmets. Look at Maryland, for instance. In 1992, the legislature passed an all rider motorcycle helmet law. The first year that law was in effect, there was a 26% reduction in fatalities. This year, there was a 50% reduction in motorcycle fatalities. We found that the number of people hospitalized for motorcycle injuries went down by over a third. The number of people hospitalized for head injuries went down over a half. The number of deaths dropped by 37% the first year. And the proportion of hospitalizations that were for head injuries fell. The total cost for motorcycle injuries was down about 30 million dollars in each of those first two years after the law was implemented. We saved $8 million in 1995 as a result of having helmet laws in place. All rider motorcycle helmet laws are important to the community because they save lives and save taxpayer dollars. Mary Price lost her oldest son when he was just 19. He was riding a motorcycle and he wasn't wearing a helmet. And I constantly told my son to wear his helmet. I told him two days before his crash. I told him, Jimmy, I don't want you riding your bike without your helmet. And he threw his arms around me and gave me a hug and a kiss and told me not to worry. That was two days before his crash. The crash occurred in daylight in the afternoon after Jimmy went to the local high school to pick up a girlfriend. So he left the house and drove over to the high school. Couldn't find the girl, thank God. And he was on his way back home and he was following a car and the car veered to the right. And I believe my son thought the car was going to turn right, but in fact the car made a U-turn. And my son hit the car broadside going 45 miles an hour. And he flew over the top and landed on the back of his head. He was taken to the hospital. He was in a coma for three days at which point he passed away. The death of her son did not signal the end of Mary's horror with motorcycle crashes. A week after Jimmy died, Mary witnessed a motorcycle crash. I turned the corner and I saw this motorcycle lying down and I parked my vehicle. I ran over to the motorcyclist and he looked up at me and he said, my legs hurt. The only difference between him and my son was the fact that he was live talking and wearing a helmet. These powerful experiences fueled Mary's desire to make a difference. She became an activist who deservedly gained much of the credit for getting a universal helmet bill passed in California. The process took over five years, years well spent in Mary's eyes. When you sit next to someone that you love and watch them take their last breath and know that because they died, others now are going to live. I wish I could have made my son come back, but I knew I couldn't do that, but I could help others. With all that's known about making motorcycles safer, it's clear that a comprehensive program that focuses on preventing crashes, reducing injuries and providing for rapid emergency medical response is the right approach. And the laws that require riders to wear their helmets are an important part of any motorcycle safety program. Helmet laws make sense for everyone, for the motorcyclist, for the family and for the community. With laws in place, injuries and fatalities from crashes are greatly reduced, taxpayers save money and everyone is protected. But without motorcycle helmet laws, we all pay the price. All of us. We all pay the price. We all take care of these people. Their family and their friends are all devastated. They are lost to the workforce, they are lost to the tax base and they overwhelm some of our hospitals in places where there are a lot of motorcycles that don't wear helmets. This is a public health issue just like any other public health issue. I support the helmet laws as a matter of good public health. I believe very much in prevention. Wearing a helmet on a motorcycle prevents severe head trauma. So when you look at the cost itself from the financial standpoint, the human cost and then the emotional cost, I think it's clear that maintaining the helmet laws is the right thing to do.