Buckle up in your car or get a ticket, yet motorcylists don't have to wear helmets?

Reply to post by Helix19

So wear one.

You need a law to tell you to?


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

reply to post by SLAYER69


Geeze....So sorry to hear about your friend. That's awful. As far as the seat belt law, they're all over it on the news this weekend as it's Memorial Day weekend and lots of folks out and about. I know the police have been pulling people over who aren't wearing a belt and also those with children who are in the proper car seats/seat belts.

Reply to post by maybee

That reminds me of another dead giveaway that money is the root.

"Click-it or ticket."

These PSA's are flooded all over television and radio. Nothing about "we're here to save your life" or even the Orwellian "for your own good" to justify a unnecessary law. Just "click-it or ticket."

Wear your seatbelt or you'll have to give us money.

I love seeing them. No adult seatbelt law in my state so it's like okay who's going to give mean ticket?

And guess what else? More adults wear their seatbelts here than in any of the surrounding states with seatbelt mandates.

If you need a law to get you to do what you ought to do then no law is going to actually get you to do it.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

The arguement i often hear is;
if you get in an accident in a car, a seatbelt may save your life.
get in an accident on a motorcycle, and a helmet wont necessarily save your life. You're most likely dead with or without.

I think a law on seatbelts is stupid.. though.. i wear them since I should have died.

Helmet laws and seat belt laws are nanny state stuff and as far as I'm concerned is no business of the Government.

I do always wear my seat belt and I always wear my helmet. I think your crazy if you don't but I also think its your business not mine.

Originally posted by MegaMind
Helmet laws and seat belt laws are nanny state stuff and as far as I'm concerned is no business of the Government.

I do always wear my seat belt and I always wear my helmet. I think your crazy if you don't but I also think its your business not mine.

What you do on your own private property is your business, correct.

reply to post by cheesyleps


"laying down a bike" in my experience of hearing the expression really means having an accident in which the bike is no longer standing

I think people like the way it sounds as opposed to "I had a motorcycle accident"

BTW I had to "lay the motorcycle down" once - I ran too fast into a curve, froze up and went off the road into a grassy field. Whew! What luck! - only grass rash - I was young and inexperienced. Saying I "laid the bike down" (so gentle sounding isn't it?) was a lot better for the ego than saying I crashed.

A helmet is a good idea. Road rash on the face or head wouldn't be fun. BTW what is up with these guys wearing shorts and flip flops while riding? My guess is they haven't come off their bikes yet and with the kind of reasoning and decision making they demonstrate in their choice of motorcycle gear it is probably just a matter of time before they do. Ouch! It isn't going to be nearly as pretty as they think they look while riding.

reply to post by illuminatitanimulli


Say what? Helmets cause deaths?

I am an experienced motorcycle rider. My father died on his bike (No helmet) as have 4 of my friends who were not wearing helmets either.

As anyone who has ever rode a bike I have dumped many times. I always wore a helmet (I don't ride anymore) and I always walked or at least limped away.

Why do you think helmets cause death? Are you referring to neck injuries from people moving injured riders or the damage cause by someone removing the helmet before qualified emergency help arrives?


I don't mean to argue but I have never heard the statistic that helmets cause death.

reply to post by MegaMind


I always feel bad when I see a guy riding with full racing leathers on and a helmet and his girlfriend is wearing daisy dukes and flip flips.

He will be fine when they crash, the girl is gonna look like hamburger.

reply to post by sdocpublishing


Yeah, it really bugs me when I see a girl on the back dressed in shorts and so on. She has way too much confidence or faith in her idiot boyfriend/husband/whoever who let her ride like that.

reply to post by bhornbuckle75


You missed the entire point of my thread.

reply to post by WeRpeons

Helmets are not part of the standard safety equipment

Years of statistics have shown that seat belts do reduce fatalities, my own Mom would have been killed back in the 60's in her VW had she not been wearing hers. That would have sucked big time, being an orphan.

I thank God for seatbelts and for saving her life.


In answer to your question, it all pertains to standard safety equipment.

Automotive seat belts are affixed to all passenger vehicles sold as mandatory safety equipment whereas helmets are not and are considered as an accessory.

That's the primary difference.

Here in New Hampshire, one of 4 states without a motorcycle helmet law...I always wear a full face one when motorcycling as well as leathers and an armored racing jacket.

Most accidents are caused by Cagers not seeing the biker.
It isn't worth the risk in my book.

I Don't leave home without it.


Plain and Simple.

Yeah, I believe the seat belt laws are kind of BS, i ride a motorcycle, but i choose to wear my helmet each time, But i also wear my seat belt, I dunno why but i feel naked without it.

Originally posted by WeRpeons
Some states have passed primary or secondary seat belt laws. At the same time some of these same states don't require motorcyclists to wear helmets.

Here's my beef, why should I be ticketed if I decide not to wear my seat belt in my car? Yet a motorcyclist that doesn't even have air bags, laminated glass or a shell around the biker doesn't have to wear a helmet?

So I guess my state government is trying to tell me my car is less safe than a motorcycle? I always Wondered if I was pulled over for not wearing my seat belt if I could fight the law and ticket in a court of law.

Anyone here at ATS have any legal background that can shed some light on this issue? I believe people should decide for themselves about being safe or not. I understand bikers have a choice of wearing a helmet or not. Why than shouldn't automobile drivers? This law seems biased and really bugs the hell out of me.


States With Seat Belt Laws

Motorcycle Helmet Laws State-by-State

What your "State" is trying to tell you is that THEY own your car and THEY will tell you how to use it. IT IS ALL ABOUT MONEY!!

I ama motorcyclist and I have to wear a helmet in certain states? Why, equal protection UNDER the LAW is the LAW. If one state DOES NOT have a helmet law, then NONE of the states can have a helmet law, that is the equal protection cluase. SAME with seat belts.

States violate their own Constitutions all the time. IT IS your RIGHT to NOT wear a sealtbelt if you so choose. I have had so many friends die because of wearing a seatbelt it isn't funny, even my 20 year old nephew back in 2001 died, the other 3 people were not wearing seatbelts in the car and they were bruised up pretty bad but did not die. His head hit the door post when the car flipped 3 times and it crushed his head in. The others bounced around in the car but were alive and HATED the fact that he died. I had another class mate burn alive in an overturned car because his body weight was keeping him from undoing the seatbelt, BURNED ALIVE!! Seat belts DO NOT save more lives than they take, that is a goddamn lie!

Here again, we all need to come together and march on each state capital and tell those idiotic ELECTED officials that WE DO NOT consent to these unconstitutional laws, these laws violate our sovereign right, they did not exist years ago and so they are ex post facto laws.

Time to step up. I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees!!!

I hate our government so fecking much it isn't even comprehendable.

Edit to add, I used to race grand prix 125cc Aprilia RSR125, 4th in WERA and 3rd in CCS, won the Division title back in 1998. I have 10 bikes, raced mtocross and was ranked in the top 5 a few years in pro-am 125cc and 250 cc, Super Moto lightweights and have broken my neck, right arm, blew apart my right knee, broken both collar bones 3 times, left ankle, right wrist and so on. I do wear a helmet sometimes, but it is MY CHOICE and not the governments. I drag raced cars when I was younger too and still work on them for a friend. I do not wear a seat belt and won't. MY choice, MY property.

Why would you not? Why do you care if others don't? Just make sure you wear a seatbelt, and your family does. My brother rode around on his bike without a helmet, until I talked him into it. It's "cool" to ride around with your head wrap or headband.. until you crash, and crack your skull open like an egg.

If you feel that strongly about the safety of others (only reason I can imagine you are complaining.. unless you really want to ride around without a seatbelt), start some awareness programs in your area or something along those lines.

In the UK a helmet is compulsory legal requirement also seatbelts are a legal requirement to be worn, However with vehicles larger than cars you have got to wear one only if they have been fitted by the manufacturer. Dosent matter if you are in a car or truck you can still go through the windscreen in a crash. It is odd that you can wear only shorts and flip flops on a motorbike doing 70mph, wearing a helmet and it be perfectly legal.

Forget trying to fight it (seat belt laws). Why? It is a "cash cow" for local governments to make up for lost revenues from property tax and sales tax since the depression hit in 2008.

In Indiana this is what I faced regarding seat belt ticketing: I pulled into a McDonalds to get a sandwich at the drive up. I had to unbuckle so I could get my wallet to pay at the driveup window. I proceeded to the road and was met by a group of cops waiting to ticket such as me who did not immediately rebuckle their belts. They were doing a "land-office business" at this one restaurant. They had one officer at the exit looking in the car and then radioing a motorcycle cop at the intersection who pulled you over and ticketed you. CHA-CHING It's a shakedown scam!

reply to post by WeRpeons


I would wear a seatbelt (and always have) even if there wasn't a law requiring it. This whole thread is ridiculous. No one is trying to stop you from eating red meat or smoking. Is putting your seat belt on really such a hassle? If you don't mind flying through your windshield in a head-on collision, that's your business. However, I don't want to waste my tax dollars paying cops, firefighters, and paramedics to respond to the scene of the accident. If ticketing you $65 saves me having to pay for your stupidity, you should have to pay it.

It seems obvious to me that we can't have true freedom or live in a free country when the police can stop you and fine you for not wearing a seat belt. This is why the US is loosing freedoms by the day, we have too many pushovers who justify infringement of personal rights because they think the law is a good idea.

With the attitude of many of the posters here I am sure the US will become a total nanny state in the next 20 years or so. Thanks you all, I hope you feel safe!

I am a third generation biker - none of us wear helmets.

We ride sans helmet because we have a very Zen way of looking at life.

When it's your time, it doesn't matter where you are, or what 'safety' equipment you're sporting.

If it gives you a sense of safety, then great, but be aware, it's just an illusion. For every helmet or seat belt that

saved a life, a biker or cager has died that had their safety equipment on.

Don't be fooled, It's a crap shoot either way.

But the laws are just another way Big Brother tells you what to do.

In the end, it's up to you.

Hey, that rhymes.