FAST FACTS:
  • Most State laws require cyclists to wear helmets
  • Bill in Tennessee would have make it rider’s choice
  • Sponsor pulls bill
(DeSoto County, MS 2/28/2012) Lawmakers in Tennessee have just abandoned a bill to give you the right to decide if you want to wear a helmet when riding in Tennessee.
It would have been a major modification of a state law that's required them for years and it's got the attention of lawmakers in Mississippi and cyclists from all over no matter what they think of the idea.
Tennessee house bill 26-61 would have made helmet wearing optional for motorcyclists over the age of 21.
It’s sparked debate across the state and into Mississippi, where there’s talk of floating a similar bill.
Dave Redell says there’s nothing like motorcycling with the wind in your hair, ”It feels good.  It just, riding a bike without a helmet, it just the way to do it.”
These days he prefers to use a helmet as the law demands, but he would like a choice.
A bill to let motorcyclists decide if they want to wear helmets was just tabled in Tennessee but it's got the attention of Mississippi Lawmakers.
That idea sends chills down the spine of Ken Tarver, who narrowly escaped an accident years ago when a motorist apparently cut him off, ”Hit the pavement at 50 miles an hour.  My head, the left side of my head and my shoulder impacted the pavement first.”
The impact didn’t quite crack his helmet open, but it left some serious damage that constantly reminds Tarver that helmets save lives.
”Would you say you owe your life to that helmet?”  “Very Possibly or if not my life, severe brain damage I feel like, and if not to that extent a real large sore on my head at least and a lot of blood.”
Tarver points out, those who do suffer brain damage end up costing all of us since taxpayers often pick up the tab for severely injured, indigent persons.
AAA reports the risk for non-helmeted bikers is twice as much as those with them, and that states which repeal helmet laws see helmet use cut in half.
But others insist the government dictates too much already, and the choice of a helmet or not, belongs to the riders. ”
I think that’s a good choice.  I think it should be left up to us to decide if we want to wear helmets or not," said Redell.