On helmets and pandering
Most voters, we would hope, educate themselves on a number of issues and then select the candidates whose views best coincide with their own. There is always a segment of voters who focus solely on one issue: abortion, gun control, health care. The Alliance of Bikers Aimed Toward Education offers another litmus test. A dozen or so local members rallied last week on the Fayette County Courthouse steps to spread the message that it’s important for voters to consider candidates’ views on helmet laws. ABATE has made no secret that it believes motorcyclists ought to be allowed to smash their heads on pavement without any protection. Laws aimed at protecting them from this carnage ought to be abolished.
Some laws that fall under the Motor Vehicle Code are enacted to protect everyone. That is why Pennsylvania requires drivers and front seat passengers to buckle up; young children to be restrained in safety seats, children under 12 to wear helmets while riding bicycles and even hard-headed motorcyclists to wear helmets.
Interestingly, Reps. Peter Daley (D-California) and Larry Roberts (D-South Union) attended the ABATE gathering, most likely looking for votes.
Said Daley, “We’ll always be there for you as long as I’m in the General Assembly.”
Echoed Roberts, “You’re adults. You have the right to decide what you’re going to do, and we’re going to help support you.”
What ABATE members, or any group focused on simply one issue, ought to do is check Daley and Roberts’ legislative history on helmets through the General Assembly’s electronic bill room www.legis.state.pa.us. Neither signed on as a sponsor of this session’s motorcycle helmet repeal bill.