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What Happened to Helmets? - An Observation


MNSurfer

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On 3/21/2021 at 6:18 PM, Spiny Norman said:

There was an accident today close by. 17yo in a old 3/4 pickup was texting and rearended a guy in a new Kia Sportage. No skid marks on the road. Maybe he had insurance because he was under 18 but maybe not.

Jesus does that suck. Texting and driving is a goddamn epidemic of the worst kind. It should be treated like a DUI, regardless of whether there was a fatality, or you were just caught doing it at a stop light. That is the only way to fix this; people are just entirely too selfish, screen-addicted, and overconfident. 

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11 hours ago, Spiny Norman said:

There was an accident today close by. 17yo in a old 3/4 pickup was texting and rearended a guy in a new Kia Sportage. No skid marks on the road. Maybe he had insurance because he was under 18 but maybe not.

Wow, hope everyone is OK man....  I doubt the kid would listen to either side of the argument if he was stupid enough to drive that distracted.....  No laws or rules will prevent poor judgement.....

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On 3/19/2021 at 3:05 PM, Neil Gendzwill said:

It’s a balance. The problem with not mandating seatbelts or motorcycle helmets is that people are idiots, by and large.

Which is exactly the point of mandates. I remember but cannot find an article about the helmet mandate in professional ice hockey. There were all manner of good, solid arguments for wearing a helmet. But the players, being, as a type, young and, by the nature of their profession, not adverse to risk, just wouldn't wear them. As a consequence, they kept getting their skulls cracked, being hospitalized and, in some cases, crippled. Until helmets were mandated, upon which everbody wore a helmet, many players who would have been injured without a helmet did not get their skull cracked and did not end up in hospital and maybe crippled.

My point is that we, as cavemen, are sometimes rather bad at making reasonable choices involving activities that were not popular in caveman times (such as motorcycling or snowboarding). And sometimes it can be a good idea to have reason mandated.

Before anyone asks: I snowboard with a helmet, I don't ride bikes. Where I live, bike helmets are mandatory. Winter sports helmets (and bicycle helmets) are mandatory for children, but not for adults. Everybody wears one on the slopes.

Edited by Aracan
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12 hours ago, TVR said:

No laws or rules will prevent poor judgement....

I don’t think anyone is arguing that laws and rules prevent poor judgement.

Well designed laws and regulations can substantially assist our ability to remove those with poor judgement from the roads before their behavior precipitates needless harm, and I am very much in favor of that. 

Preventing needless harm, and promoting the well being of the general population above an individual’s right to behave selfishly and harmfully is how we advance as a society. There is a worthwhile cost levied upon everyone’s freedom associated with that. In any functioning society: an individual’s freedom to do whatever they please doesn’t supersede the general populations right to live free from harm. This is why we have laws.

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Laws can’t prevent poor judgment but they can sure mitigate it. The idiot who would text and drive except for the risk of a fine still has poor judgment but at least his eyes are on the road. Similarly kids whose fathers who only wear motorcycle helmets because the law says so have a better chance of still having a father, even if he is a bonehead. 
 

What do I know? I’m from North Canuckistan and clearly a card-carrying Commie. 

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Hot take:

My wife strongly prefers that I wear one.  If it wasn't for her I would wear one probably half the time depending on how risky I am feeling that morning.  Oddly enough she doesn't care if ride around town on my motorcycle without one.  Risk is fun. Live and let die.  It is all playing the odds and mitigation game anyways. I could wear a helmet to bed every night and still get turned into a vegetable by someone texting and driving.  There are a million other optional risky behaviors that we could get all bent out of shape over that stress our resources as a society (smoking, speeding, IV drug use, extreme sports, choosing to go outside, etc)

That said I've definitely noticed a decrease in helmet use on the slopes amongst the stereotypical mid-west vacationing crowd.  Apparently helmets and camo don't go together well.  I only know two locals that do real stupid crap without a helmet.

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