The Courant is on a mission again to put a helmet on motorcycle riders. The past couple of months I’ve seen three or four op-eds and a Courant editorial [“Without a better motorcycle helmet law, more will die,” March 26] pushing helmets for riders.
I have a few comments.
1. Helmets are only useful in a crash. The rest of the time they obstruct vision and hearing; also the weight and the heat from wearing a helmet is fatiguing.
2. Well over 50 percent of motorcycle accidents are with a car where the driver didn’t see the bike, or was distracted.
3. The number of people who die or get brain injuries from motorcycle accidents compared to the deaths and suffering from opioids, smoking, alcohol, medical malpractice, etc. is statistically insignificant.
The Courant and others that want to protect us from ourselves would be better off concentrating on better rider education and enforcement of speeding laws and laws about running stop signs and stoplights and distracted drivers.
We go through this “put a helmet on them” every year. Time to concentrate on what will really make a difference.
Tom Sanders, Higganum
