Mandatory Bicycle Helmet Laws

[jeff47]

70. Well, first you'd have to provide a figure for "loss of freedom".

there is virtually no way of knowing what percentage of them would have been saved by a bike helmet

No, actually it's quite easy.

Extensive head injuries? No helmet.

Getting steamrolled by a semi truck (or even a SUV) pretty much makes your styrofoam helmet a frisbee.

Except said accidents don't happen with statistically significant frequency. Virtually all vehicle+bike accidents involve glancing blows.

A dead no-helmet cyclist doesn't raise medical insurance much, but a surviving helmeted cyclist with severe neck injuries (or even a broken arm!) actually will collect from health insurance.

And statistically the no-helmet cyclist will survive with crippling injuries, while the helmeted cyclist will have less severe injuries. So you're arguing on the basis of an outlier of an outlier.

So, assuming my doppleganger eats lots of cheeseburgers and develops diabetes and ends up hospitalized on the same day my "other" me gets in a helmet-free accident--how is that different?

Treatment for diabetes is much cheaper than treatment for severe brain injury. Worst case with diabetes is you lose feet and are in a wheelchair. Severe brain injury means not only are you in a wheelchair, but you require 24/7 care.

So, assuming my doppleganger eats lots of cheeseburgers and develops diabetes and ends up hospitalized on the same day my "other" me gets in a helmet-free accident--how is that different?

Because one cost is avoidable. The other is not.

Even though the insurance cost angle is weak, the true point is that there are tons of choices we make every day that have a bearing on our safety and not every one should be legislated.

Except there are very few where the difference in treatment cost is so clear-cut. For example, you might not get diabetes despite your cheeseburger-consuming lifestyle. In fact, with the lack of sugar in cheeseburgers you're actually not all that likely to get diabetes from them. Even if you do, the treatment is cheap and the condition is reversible. A smooshed brain isn't.

But there's two kinds of cyclists: Those who have fallen, and those who will fall.

The demand that you have "freedom" to not wear a helmet requires taking away my "freedom" because you are making me pay to care for your disabled ass.