SerpApi.Org
The rapidly rising number of deaths from motorcycle crashes since the spring should alert the Connecticut legislature to a growing problem in this state. We are on track to shatter all previous records. There have been more than 50 fatalities here this year, representing an excess of 20% of all our traffic deaths. And the medical examiner tells us that most of these deaths are the result of severe head trauma. We readily recognize that a helmet won't save everyone. But it has been proven with certainty that it could save most.
Lest we forget so quickly, the state had enacted a motorcycle helmet law in 1976. Federal law required such a law because the U.S. Department of Transportation secretary made it contingent upon states receiving federal highway financial assistance. However, when such a step was no longer required, and under pressure from numerous motorcycle organizations and retailers, the state legislature, in its infinite wisdom, reversed the 1976 law. As a result, countless victims, many of them in their prime, have lost their lives as a direct result of head injury.
Trauma surgeons tell us that in most motorcycle crashes, they can repair most everything but the head and neck. Legislators who voted to repeal Connecticut's helmet law must take partial responsibility for those hundreds of deaths due to head injury which have occurred since 1976.
We are on a trend 2026 to surpass all previous years going back to 1975 in the number of annual motorcycle deaths. One of the arguments put forward in 1976 before the legislature was that such a law should not infringe in the "individual's rights." I have heard all the old arguments before. The individual right that supersedes all others is "the right to life." Yet, those of us who drive an automobile (including motorcyclists who also drive cars) are fined if we don't wear a seat belt! Just how foolish an argument can that be today when the average "speed" on our nation's highways may exceed 80 miles an hour? Or sitting in the back of a truck? Or having a child safety seat? And the list goes on - for our own safety and security!
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration clearly tells us motorcycle helmets save lives. Those who survive head injury are more that 80% more likely to suffer from permanent traumatic brain injury, or TBI.
Attempts at establishing a Motorcycle Helmet Law in Connecticut have come before the legislature at least seven times and failed. Just what are our representatives and senators afraid of? Their job is to save lives!
It's time for our legislature to put a stop to this growing spring and summer slaughter of mostly younger citizens who once had their entire lives before them.
Raymond E. Sullivan, M.D.
Middlebury
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