Gov. Jay Nixon says helmets will still be required in Missouri
JEFFERSON CITY — Gov. Jay Nixon said today that he will veto a bill that would have repealed Missouri’s helmet law for motorcyclists, keeping in place a law safety advocates say saves lives.
Motorcycle enthusiasts have been trying to repeal the mandatory helmet law for a couple of decades, and this is the second time the Legislature agreed with them. In 1993, then-Gov. Mel Carnahan vetoed a similar repeal.
Lawmakers argued that it was a freedom issue, siding with cyclists who find the helmets stifling and unnecessary.
Pete Rahn, Missouri’s director of the department of transportation, had been lobbying Nixon hard to veto the bill. In a news conference last month, Rahn pointed to a survey that said Missourians overwhelmingly want motorcyclists to wear helmets. Rahn said repealing the law will lead to deaths, based on highway statistics that show riders without helmets are more likely to die.
Until today, Nixon had been mostly silent on the issue. He disagreed with advocates for the law who said that the governor had given them assurances he would sign it. And he chided Rahn for spending public money on a lobbying effort. Rahn’s actions caused Nixon to veto $33,000 in MoDOT’s budget, the same amount of federal money the transportation department had spent on the survey.
In the end, though, Nixon ended up on Rahn’s side.
“In terms of lives and of dollars, the cost of repealing Missouri’s helmet law simply would have been too high,” Gov. Nixon said. “By keeping Missouri’s helmet law intact, we will save numerous lives, while also saving Missouri taxpayers millions of dollars in increased health care costs. Keeping our helmet law in place was the safe and cost-effective choice for Missouri.”
Great, now comrade Nixon should require helmets in cars, trucks, scooters, and bicycles as all of these vehicles have elevated head injuries that are costing us money. All could be avoided by requiring helmets.
In addition, the greatest cause of injury are improperly constructed roads. Perhaps comrade Nixon’s time and efforts would be better off fixing our roads.
So Governor Nixon knuckled under to the medical professions bag of tricks and the NHTSA’s list of inflated motorcycle injury data and the all rider helmet law in Missouri remains in effect. Well they have their agenda and I have mine: as I crisscross the country on my Gold Wing in late July thru September, I’ll be spending my money for lodging, fuel and food in Kansas and in other helmet free states. Missouri will not see one dime of my vacation money.
Brian-”Instead of singling out bikers why dont we worry about all the idots on the highway talking and texting on their cell phones! I bet any amount of money that they will cause a traffic accident quicker than me not wearing a helmet!”
Umm, are you sure you haven’t already had an accident without your helmet on? I don’t recall ever hearing or reading about anyone claiming helmets cause traffic accidents.
Mr. R,
Did you fail to read the paragraph in which Mr. Rahn references a “survey that said Missourians overwhelmingly want motorcyclists to wear helmets.”?
Yours on a crotchrocket,
JPinSTL
cophater69: Apparently you hated Civics class too. A bill passed in the legislature is not a law until it is signed by the governor. And, thank heavens Governor Nixon is going to use his veto in this case!
I think that this law should be struck down for the simple fact that it should be a matter of choice whether or not to wear a helmet. I will continue to wear one in Missouri since I live here, and continue to take it off (if I choose) when I hit the state line of KS/OK and AR. I don’t think this is a communist state, or that our Governor is Hitler/Stalin-like, or even retarded–this is one issue in a sea of many I’m sure he deals with…but that being said, this is an issue that directly affects ME. To make it quite simple, either pass it while in office, or lose my $$ support and eventually, my vote. Is either important to him?
Mr. P,
How selfish of you.
Yours in the voting booth,
JPinSTL
Good veto. I also find seat belts confining but I wear them in my car, and I wear my helmet while motorcycling. It’s nice to see reason prevail over political expediency.
— Clyde Farris
2:09 pm July 2nd, 2009
Good for you. That should be your CHOICE not the law. I don’t need the government to protect me from me. I also wish the politicians would start quoting the amount of revene generated from these “Safety Laws” as we all know thats really the reason the law sticks around. While were at it, can we blow $33k of tax payers money to determine how much safer we would ALL be with a law banning cell phone usage while on public road ways?
I should have known that all you bleeding heart, gay pride liberals would have to chime in on something that you know nothing about. You deserve Nixon. Let him lead you to the slaughter like the cattle you are! Women can decide if they want to have a baby but “harley guys” cant make a choice on wearing a helmet! Par for the course!
I am 15 year motorcyclist. I am for government out of my life. I will not weep if someone gets themself killed due to thier stupidness (not wearing a helmet). But due to my experence as a RN, the tax payers will have to take care of these knuckel heads who don’t get killed, and scrampled thier heads just because they were not wearing a brain bucket. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars per person that we the tax payers have to foot the bill for. Insurance will only cover so much and so long. In this case, its not a manner of freedom, its a manner of tax payer’s MONEY!!!
You are assuming that the helmet will save us when little Suzy is texting away and ends up T-boneing us in the intersection. Spend that “Tax Payers Money” banning the things that make the road dangerous for bikers (i.e cell phone useage, make-up applications, reading the paper while drving to work and all the other utterly stupid, YET LEGAL, activities that the cagers do on a daily basis). Once there are laws that promote SAFE DRIVING then we can look into laws that promote safe wrecks.