Alderman, Mayor Support Mandatory Helmet Laws

By Margaret Lyons in News on Sep 30, 2004 9:31PM

Alderman Edward Burke (14th) has proposed a new city law that would require motorcyclists to wear helmets. Mayor Daley said that he would support a helmet law not just for motorcyclists but also for bicyclists and in-line skaters. The proposal comes on the heels of seven motorcycle-related deaths in Chicagoland since April, the most recent a 21-year-old woman who died Monday.

It's not as simple as just passing a law, though. Illinois in fact already has a certain kind of helmet law: a law that bans local governments from requiring protective headgear for motorcyclists. (It's the underlined paragraph.) Some motorcycle advocacy groups say that helmets restrict vision, hearing, and mobility, and that while helmets protect against head injuries they contribute to neck injuries. ABATE of Illinois—ABATE here stands for A Brotherhood Aimed Towards Education but in other states sometimes stands for American Bikers Aimed Toward Education—insists that mandatory helmet laws violate personal freedom.

Mayor Daley doesn't see it that way, though. "If you hit your head, you're going to be seriously injured... Why should we pick up all the [medical] bills for these people?" He also has The Hurt Report on his side, which says that "The use of the safety helmet is the single critical factor in the prevention of reduction of head injury."