Cuomo pondering mandatory car occupant helmet law

[RevolverRob]

I believe the NHTSA has already determined that helmets + airbags = dead due to neck injuries at a much higher rate.

Notice there aren’t airbags in race cars, but there are helmets? That’s a clue.

[Poconnor]

I can see people getting on board with this idea. You know; for the children

[BehindBlueI's]

I dimly recall reading once that the fraction of fatalities due to head injuries (about half) was similar for both motorcycle and car fatalities (which isn't surprising; heads are fragile things). Of course the fatalities per mile are a lot higher for motorcycles.

But if you were an engineer from Alpha Centauri looking to reduce traffic fatalities, helmet laws for cars aren't that odd an idea. Race car drivers wear them for a reason, after all.

But while many states require motorcycle helmets, some actually forbid helmets for auto drivers. I think the notion is that no one is going to wear a helmet in a car unless they are a street racer.

It's always struck me as one of those ways where our response to risk management isn't always very logical (see also: a lot of gun control).

Cars have headrests, shoulder belts, and airbags these days all of which are designed to address head injury.

I suspect the ban on helmets in cars is more about visibility and/or airbag compatibility and/or identification of drivers. With a motorcycle there's no "B" or "C" pillar blocking your view, you don't have giant blind spots immediately to your flank, etc. You do in a car, and with increased aerodynamics a lot of roof lines are lower then they used to be as well. I couldn't wear a helmet in my Camaro unless I took the seat out.

[john c]

IN the late 1960's/early 1970's it was SOP for many police departments in my county to roll with riot helmets on, all the time, in the car, etc.

Yep. During the hippie/riot years the standard headgear was a helmet. Guys hated it, and they wouldn’t pass muster today as a crash helmet. It lasted from the late ‘60s to the early ‘70s.


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[john c]

I dimly recall reading once that the fraction of fatalities due to head injuries (about half) was similar for both motorcycle and car fatalities (which isn't surprising; heads are fragile things). Of course the fatalities per mile are a lot higher for motorcycles.

But if you were an engineer from Alpha Centauri looking to reduce traffic fatalities, helmet laws for cars aren't that odd an idea. Race car drivers wear them for a reason, after all.

But while many states require motorcycle helmets, some actually forbid helmets for auto drivers. I think the notion is that no one is going to wear a helmet in a car unless they are a street racer.

It's always struck me as one of those ways where our response to risk management isn't always very logical (see also: a lot of gun control).

Before side you impact airbags, a helmet would help In a t-bone or rollover crash when your head smacks the window. But side impact airbags have eliminated any potential benefit, plus reducing the whiplash you’d get just wearing a helmet.


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[whomever]

I may well be wrong, but my recollection is that the states that prohibited helmets in cars did so long before airbags, and explicitly because they were trying to discourage street racers.

And I dunno, there is an argument there - it's not like there were a lot of safety conscious soccer moms who were wearing helmets in their minivans.

[Borderland]

I think all these new leftist tactics are facinating. Will be interesting to find out who has the propensity for being an outlaw. Probably larger percentage of folks than they plan on.

Attachment 47746

Happened in CT.

[Bergeron]

Get after your fellow citizens, you authoritarian pinhead of a governor! Be sure to always remember that the law exists to make men better, even if they’ll never be as good as you.

[Wise_A]

The only thing that will make Andrew Cuomo better than the living personification of excellence that he already is, is a single, strategically-placed blood clot.