It’s time to pass helmet law

The increasing number of mo-peds on the streets in Johnson and Linn counties has brought with it a troubling increase in crashes involving the motorized vehicles.

Drivers like the vehicles because they save gas and are easy to park. But in the event of an accident, they offer little protection to riders - take as a tragic example, 17-year-old Iowa City West volleyball player Caroline Found, killed in a mo-ped accident just last month.

In fact, mo-ped and motorcycle crashes are more likely to result in a death than accidents involving other types of vehicles.

That's not helped at all by the state's reluctance to pass laws requiring riders to wear helmets.

It's time for state legislators to step up and pass a universal helmet law for mo-ped, scooter and motorcycle drivers on public roads.

In Johnson County, mo-ped registrations have nearly doubled since 2005. The number of registered mo-peds in Linn County has increased as well.

But that's led to a corresponding increase in crashes involving the vehicles. According to the state Department of Transportation's Office of Traffic and Safety, 153 crashes involving mo-peds and all-terrain vehicles in the state last year, compared with 130 in 2005.

Still, as of last January, Iowa was one of only three states in the country not to have some kind of helmet law. Some states require riders under a certain age to wear helmets; others have universal requirements.

We've long taken the position that Iowa should at least require children under 18 to wear a helmet on motorcycles.

Given the clear facts, we see no reason not to pass a universal helmet law for open motorized vehicles.

Motorcycle riders have about a 29 percent better chance of surviving a crash than riders without a helmet, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Of the 48 motorcycle riders who were killed in Iowa in 2008, 85 percent were not wearing helmets. In that same year across the country, helmets saved 1,829 motorcyclists' lives, according to NHTSA analysis of crash statistics.

And, contrary to helmet-opponents' common claims, the agency's research has found that wearing helmets did not significantly limit a motorcyclists' ability to see, or ability to pick up important auditory cues.

We already can hear the cries from the anti-helmet lobby, which has been successful so far in keeping Iowa behind the curve when it comes to helmet laws.

But the blunt truth is that helmets save lives and prevent traumatic brain injuries - significantly so.

If the state requires helmets - much as they've required drivers of cars and trucks to wear seat belts - more people will use them.

And if more people use them, more lives will be saved.