And folks waiting for organ donations.



I rode from Birmingham, Alabama to Jupiter, Florida two weeks ago. I felt like an alien riding through Daytona Beach on Route 1. I am ATGATT on a KLR650 -- full face helmet, armored mesh jacket and pants, boots, and gloves. Temp was over ninety degrees (water soaked cooling vest worked). The Harley riders with no helmets, shorts, t-shirts, and loafers wouldn't even wave back to me. Seemed to me that in Florida riders with helmets always waved back but half or less of the no-helmet folks. Here in Alabama (helmets required -- can you believe it??), all motorcyclists wave back.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

Just saw, on the news from Albany, the Massechusetts head of vehicle registration resigned because the truck driver was able to keep his license after his dwi arrest last month. With his past record, I doubt that loss of his license would have stopped this guy from driving. In fact, just my opinion here, but I would say that every evening there are drunk, drugged, impaired drivers all around us. Late night worse. Weekend nights; fagetaboutit!

But, statistics say that a helmet would have saved at least somebody in that accident. DOT stats say that helmets are effective 37% of the time;

https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/...ewPublication/809861

These 7 deaths were caused far more by the failure to keep drunks of the road than by the riders not wearing a helmet but with a helmet one of these riders might have walked away from it.

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''Sweeney - you can both crush your AG *and* cruise in dead last!! 😂 '' Murphy's Law

ATGATT for me--and my wife too when she rides with me pillion. We're both running full faced modular helmets (Schuberth C4s) with bluetooth so we can talk to each other when riding.

Still, I'm down with everyone riding their own ride. Don't want to ride with a helmet. Go for it.

My wonderful SIL has CF and wasn't expected to make it to 30. Someone riding with no helmet provided her two new lungs that Stanford Med Center was kind enough to put into her. So there's that.

/r

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Steve

Let's see how much that makes it into the spin cycle about the immigration arguments versus it being a Latino.

Whenever I see a rider doing something idiotic or reckless I think “ well, the world does need organ donors.”

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Proud member of the MSF (Maple Syrup Mafia)

Unless the government is paying for your healthcare I don't think seat belts and helmets should be mandatory, but I always use both.

Victim shaming!

Unless the government is paying for your healthcare I don't think seat belts and helmets should be mandatory, but I always use both. //

Which brings up a question I really dont know the answer to, do all these Marine veterans who were killed here, have government health insurance? At any rate, we all pay in the long run for this stuff, not the insurance companies. As long as health insurance is for profit, we all pay for the uninsured and insured.


Like many others I always ride with a helmet on any two wheel vehicle, and do think it should be a law. I think about my kids, should they be able to chose not to wear helmets when they get their motorcycle license? I say absolutely no, and wish they had no choice in the matter. ITs fine to say you dont really care if others get severely injured or killed because of their choice, but is it really? No one is going out on their rides thinking this is it, it is supposed to be fun and enjoyable, and statistics are not kind to the wind and hair blowing crowd..

Access to "government health insurance" aka TriCare depends. Are they merely veterans? or veterans with 20 or more years of service--which gives them access to retiree benefits? Either way you pay. I guess there's this myth that "veterans" get free health care for life. Not. At. All. As a veteran/retiree with 25 years of federal service I pay quarterly for the privilege of my government health care--in my wife and my case it's TriCare Prime Retired. I also pay quarterly to maintain my government life insurance policy that i carried into retirement as well.

Aint none of that shit free--yo!

/r

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Steve

I guess there's this myth that "veterans" get free health care for life. Not. At. All//

Thanks for the answer, I always figured you had to actually have a 20 year retirement for health care to kick in, but thought maybe there was some lesser plan for those with fewer years. SO is it a lot you have to pay to stay in the plan, or just some token amount like copays and deductibles? It has always irked me that politicians get their retirements and full medical with so few years put in, and apparently the best plan money(and the government) can buy them. I think that if they had to endure what all of us on the ground here do, decisions and choices might be different, and certainly more immediate than they seem to have been the past 50 years...

What's crazy about this incident is that he was charged with OUI in CT (he has a Mass license) on May 11th, which should have suspended both his commercial and non-commercial licenses but the states don't seem to have a proper mechanism in place to exchange the info.

Then, on June 3rd in Texas he rolled a car carrier with 5 cars on it but wasn't charged.

This country acts as if having a drivers license is your right.

This country acts as if having a drivers license is your right.


Well I suppose that is one of the drawbacks to states rights. Makes it harder to have a federal database that could catch this sort of stuff. You dont have to have the same rules, but some things are universal and would be nice to know, like a guy who in no way should be driving on our roads. At least with an actual license. Doesnt keep him from driving without a license, but it would keep companies from hiring him to be a driver. Also keep him from renting cars and trucks, so he doesnt have a free for all just by crossing state lines...

They do, which is why the head of the Registry resigned. The RMV knew about the ticket but did nothing, so she resigned.

On this specific case there really isn't much to be said. The driver is a menace to society. The question I am about to ask does not apply here.

There is the occasional roadie on my bike path who - in my opinion - rides too aggressively. The path is only 5 feet wide and it is two way traffic. If their aggressive behavior causes an accident they should be held responsible but should they be held responsible if they cause a death because the rider they clipped chose not to wear a helmet? Is any of their responsibility abridged by the victims actions?

There was a pretty big kerfuffle 2 summers ago because a hobby jogger got hit while running on the wrong side of the path (this all went down on social media). She defended her decision to jog on the wrong side because she wanted to see what was coming at her. She really raised a stink and got the park to put up a bunch of 10mph speed limit signs that were actually enforced for about a month by cops on bikes. No one paused to think that this whole thing would have been avoided had the woman followed protocol.

What do you think?

(I feel like reiterating that this has nothing to do with what happened in MA)