Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

while describing some gory details of some of the more serious accidents. Ed Youngblood , the AMA 's director of government rela tions said not to d well on th e lan guage usag e thing, but I felt tha t th e sublim inal messag e that was perpetrated to th e peop le present at th e meet ing was that motorcyclists in gen eral are irresponsibl e. counterculture fr eaks. . . Peopl e present a t th e afternoon meeting were largel y DOT and insu r a n ce com p a n y (GEl CO and Nationwide) represent at ives, Dr . Lee Hanes (sp . ?) of the Ame rican Medical Association .was present. Representa tives of the motorcycling microcosm were few - AMA's Youngblood , MSF's Charles Hartman and four or five bikers. No representatives of the press were there as far as I could tell , I came away from the meetings feeling that our arguments opposing legislation against motorcyclists are very weak. I am under the im p ression that our own research (by AMA , MSF , etc.) in no way approaches the amount of research that has been done by Dr. Hurt and the NHTSA, We cannot di sprove ·their statistics if we do not have our own . But then we do not have a ccess to th e taxpayers' dollars. Joan Claybrook 's speech made th e daily newspapers in the D.C . area , and the D .C : radio reports th e morning following her presentation sa id that 5 1 % of motorc ycling accidents are caused by car drivers who do not see th e mot orcyclist and " b ikers aren't going to like this , but Ms. Claybrook suggests donning yellow outer garmen ts." . Present a t th e Cla ybrook conference were representatives from th e MIC, MSF , AMA and AMF/Harl eyDav idson (very few non -motorcyclists). Most of these same people did not show up for Dr. Hurt's presentation that afternoon . Joan Claybrook's • opening 'address What appears on these pages is the result of an attempt -to .provide you with as much in formation as is available concerning the recently announced (january 11) effort launched by Ms. Joan Claybrook. the Administratrix of the U.S . Department of Transportation's (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) , to make helmet use mandatory nationwide . Her latest press conference address is printed here verbatim as is the preliminary report of a DOT funded study conducted by Dr. Harry Hurt of the University of Southern California , a position paper from the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) , as well as other pertinent material. The preliminary remarks are by Cycle ' News contributing editor Mary Grothe, who attended both the January 11 Claybrook press conference and that afternoon's meeting which was held to release a preliminary report of Dr. Hurt's continuing study of 899 motorcycle accidents which occurred in southern California. 12 The following copy represents a . very small portion of th e actual re o search that has been con du ct ed by both the NHTSA and by USC's Dr. Hurt . At both th e morning meet in g (C laybrook) and th e a fte rn oo n meeting . (H u rt ) telephone book -size volumes co nt a in ing in forma t ion on motorcycle accidents wer e d isplayed . Attendees were told th at most of the info co n t a in ed th erein would be released later (three to six months). Dr. ' Hurt's study in particular con tains a tremendous wealth of infer- mauon. Motorcycles were exam ined for 300 factors (ca rs involved in the accide nts were not exa mi ned except for contact points). Rider characterist ics. different kinds of eye protectors. and crash -b a rs (t hey . a ccording to Dr. Hurt 's study. offer more pr ot ect ion to your engi ne cases than to your legs) wer e am on g th e factors studied . Dr. Hurt states that mo st of th e mot orcyclists involved in th e accid ents were craftsmen . students. laborer s or unemployed persons. I hav e to praise Dr . Hurt's ab ilit y for in- depth research , but I felt that at times his language usage during the presentation was disparaging - i.e. the rider did not expect to be involved in an accident as he was "on ly on his way to the 7·Eleven for a six pack." Dr. Hurt coul d have sai d, "He was on his wa y to th e sto re ," He a lso used the term, " blitzing down the street." despite th e fac t that excessive speed was not a m ajor con tributing factor in the 899 accidents studied. He also made vague references to " long hair ," and he laughed inappropriately , at times Good morning. We are releasing today a report of great concern to the motoring public - motorcycle helmet laws. Motorcycling has always been a dangerous way to travel. Lately it ha s been made even more dangerous by th e repeal in many sta tes of laws which require motorcyclists to wear helmets . Motorcycle deaths in 1977 _wer e up 24 % over 1976 , and on e important element of this increase was a d ecl ine in helm et use. With a new state legislative season com ing up , it is vital that we im mediately inform governors and sta te legislators of these findings . This report ' summarizes the results from five recent studies conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ( NHT SA) on th e ef fects of helmets and helmet usage laws on highway safet y, The report draws two major con clusions. First , motorcycle helmets work. They reduce head injuries significantly without causing injuries. In the areas studied (O kla hom a , Kansas , South Dakota , Colorado , and southern Cal ifornia) motorcyclists invol ved in crashes who were not wearing helmets were twice as likely to suffer a head in ju ry as those who were and three to n ine times more likely to suffer a fatal head inj ury. The report also deflates the key questions raised about motorcycle helmets . The report finds that helmets do not interfere with a motorcyclist's vision and/ or hearing, and

• Cover