Senate Passes Motorcycle Helmet Bill Like One Deukmejian Vetoed

The Senate on Thursday approved a virtual carbon copy of a bill vetoed last year by Gov. George Deukmejian to require that all motorcycle riders and their passengers wear safety helmets.

The legislation by Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (D-Carson) was passed on a 24-10 vote and returned to the Assembly for concurrence in Senate amendments. The bill cleared the lower chamber last spring with no votes to spare.

“Given that the bill is essentially the same as last year’s and the same set of circumstances exist, if the bill reaches the governor, the same result will ensue,” warned Tom Beermann, Deukmejian’s deputy press secretary. “He will veto the measure.”

Deukmejian Veto

Last year marked the first time in more than two decades of trying to enact a mandatory helmet law that the Legislature passed the measure. Deukmejian refused to sign it, saying he would only support the helmet requirement for motorcyclists 21 years of age and younger.

A separate bill supported by Deukmejian to beef up motorcycle safety and training contained a provision requiring 16- to 21-year-old motorcyclists to wear helmets. But that feature was struck from the measure last March.

Currently, none of the estimated 822,000 licensed motorcycle drivers in California are required to wear protective headgear, although passengers 15 1/2 and younger must do so. However, for the last year and a half, motorcyclists under 18 have had to complete a training program before receiving a motorcycle operator’s license.

Foes of the mandatory helmet proposal, including the Hells Angels and other motorcycle organizations, have successfully fought the bill since 1967. Government, they argue, has no business interfering with their “freedom of choice” to wear a crash helmet or not.

But their argument has been co-opted by helmet supporters and given a new spin. The supporters argue that taxpayers who must pay the substantial medical, hospital and other public assistance costs of injured motorcyclists have been denied a choice. They say tax dollars could be better spent on other health-related matters.

Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) said safety helmets could save taxpayers several million dollars a year. He said the costs to taxpayers of even a single helmetless motorcycle crash victim without insurance can exceed $1 million.

Changed Mind

Torres drew support Thursday from Republican Assemblywoman Rebecca Morgan of Los Altos Hills, who said the measure “flies in the face of my basic philosophy of keeping government out of our lives.”

But she said that after viewing motorcycle crash victims in hospitals she had concluded that “these are individuals who have not taken responsibility for their own lives and have put the responsibility on taxpayers--you and me.”

However, an opponent of the bill, Sen. Don Rogers (R-Bakersfield), said wearing a safety helmet may create a “placebo effect” in which a cyclist might drive faster and take unnecessary risks because he falsely believes he is protected against injury.

“Wearing a helmet may work against their safety,” he said.