Governor Vetoes Motorcyclist Helmet Bill

Gov. George Deukmejian, although conceding that he would wear a motorcycle crash helmet, nevertheless on Monday vetoed an emotion-charged bill to require every biker in California to wear protective headgear.

Safety activists had hoped that Deukmejian would sign the legislation and write an end to the debate that began 21 years ago when squads of Hells Angels persuaded an Assembly committee to kill the first mandatory helmet bill.

“If I were to ride a motorcycle, I would certainly wear a helmet because it provides an additional margin of safety to the rider,” Deukmejian, who does not ride motorcycles, said in his veto message.

“I am concerned, however, about the need to mandate all motorcycle riders and passengers to wear helmets in all conditions on all highways, or be in violation of state law.”

The governor’s action handed a big victory to cyclists who argued, among other things, that a mandatory helmet law would violate what they called their “freedom to choose” to wear or not to wear helmets.

For proponents of the bill by Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (D-Hawthorne), the veto constituted a severe defeat after more than two decades of uphill effort. They included physicians, insurance companies, safety organizations, hospitals, law enforcement officers and even former bikers who suffered traumatic injuries.

“The governor caved in to the pressure of the outlaw motorcyclists,” an angry Floyd declared. “The governor just doesn’t have any guts.”

Republican Measure

Floyd voiced puzzlement that the governor scuttled his helmet bill on the same day that he signed a Republican-authored measure that will require all riders of off-road all-terrain vehicles to wear safety helmets starting Jan. 1.

He said this apparent inconsistency showed Deukmejian has “some real problems and I think he ought to go see a psychiatrist.”

One rider who hailed the action was Doug Erickson of Monrovia, who said he has ridden motorcycles for 18 years and is a member of the Modified Motorcycle Assn., which lobbied hard against the bill. “I’m glad he vetoed it (because) over a certain speed we know that a helmet is not going to help.”

Currently, it is against the law for a motorcycle passenger 15 1/2 years or younger to ride without a helmet. Floyd’s bill would have required every motorcycle operator and passenger to wear a Highway Patrol-approved helmet.

Deukmejian said some studies indicate that most motorcycle accidents involve young, relatively inexperienced cyclists who have been drinking while the “incidence of accidents involving mature operators with years of experience is dramatically lower.”

“I believe that it is unfair to require these responsible, mature operators to wear helmets in all weather conditions and on all public roads and highways,” he said.

Limited Helmet Bill

However, the governor said that in the future he would sign a bill that required bikers 21 and younger to wear helmets. He said the bill also would have to provide that all cyclists receive “meaningful” training and that state licensing and testing standards would have to be toughened.

Floyd, who promised to reintroduce the bill next year, said Deukmejian’s proposal to require helmets of drivers 21 and younger could not be enforced. “A cop can’t drive down the street and stop everyone to check their age,” Floyd said.

Floyd’s bill represented the first time since 1967--when the Hells Angels made their debut as citizen-lobbyists in the Capitol--that a mandatory helmet bill had survived its first committee or cleared either house of the Legislature, not to mention reaching the governor’s desk.

Over the years, as various helmet bills were considered, Hells Angels and other biker organizations showed up to protest. Although effective, they lacked the drama of the 1967 confrontation when the bikers surrounded the Capitol with their motorcycles and appeared before committee members in full leather regalia.

Tactics to kill the bill changed radically during the last two decades. Now, opponents include not only rough-hewn bikers wearing soiled denims and headbands but businessmen in conservative three-piece suits. Opponents have even hired lobbyists and call upon Hollywood celebrities such as comedian Jay Leno and actor Shadoe Stevens to testify on their behalf.

Active Lobbying

Lobbyist James E. Lombardo, who represented the 5,000-member California Sports Cyclists Assn., said he met with aides to Deukmejian at least five times to seek a veto, the last conference occurring midday Monday.

He said he stressed that studies had indicated that 61% of motorcycle deaths involved cyclists who did not possess a valid motorcyclist’s or driver’s license.

Lombardo suggested that the well-known antipathy between Deukmejian and Floyd “probably didn’t hurt us.” Floyd denounced the veto as “mean-spirited toward Dick Floyd” and indicated that if a Republican had carried the bill, Deukmejian would have signed it.

The GOP governor and Floyd have clashed regularly over Floyd’s legislation and his bills have often met with vetoes.

The campaign to enact a motorcycle helmet bill started in 1967, one year after the federal government said it would cut off highway construction funds to states that did not require safety headgear.

California and several other states defied the edict and in 1976 the federal order was repealed. Some states repealed their helmet laws while others modified them.

Helmets are required for all motorcycle riders in 19 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. An additional 26 states require helmets for most riders, and only five states have no helmet laws.