Suit Seeks Injunction to Block State’s Helmet Law : Safety: Action is the first legal challenge to measure, which is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1. It disputes claims that deaths and injuries will be reduced.

Supported by a coalition of motorcyclist groups, a Ventura attorney on Wednesday filed what was described as the first legal challenge to the state’s new mandatory helmet law.

Attorney Wendy C. Lascher filed the suit in Orange County Superior Court, seeking an injunction preventing enforcement of the law, which is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The suit claims the law is vague and infringes on motorcyclists’ rights to privacy and free expression.

The suit also disputes claims by supporters of the law that it will reduce deaths and injuries.

“In 1987, 1988 and 1989, states which had mandatory helmet laws had more fatalities per hundred motorcycle accidents than states which do not require motorcycle helmets,” the suit said, citing studies by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

But an aide to Assemblyman Richard Floyd (D-Gardena), who sponsored the legislation, said those studies were debunked by witnesses who testified for the bill at committee hearings.

“Researchers who studied states with and without helmet laws found a 43% reduction in societal costs from motorcycle accidents in states that had such laws,” said Bob Terry, a legislative assistant for Floyd.

Terry said about 35 states have mandatory helmet laws.

Terry and Lascher said the suit is the first to be filed against California’s helmet law.

The plaintiffs include Bir Singh Khalsa, a Monterey man who is described in the suit as an adherent of the Sikh faith. Sikhs must wear turbans in public, the suit says, and the helmet law will force Khalsa to choose between riding a motorcycle and obeying the tenets of his religion.

The suit claims the law violates riders’ right to free exercise of religion.

Another plaintiff, Jerald Bowman of Los Angeles County, uses hearing aids in both ears and wearing a helmet causes intolerable audio feedback, the suit says. It claims that the law violates federal protections for people with disabilities.

Terry said Khalsa and Bowman may be able to get waivers from the DMV allowing them to ride without helmets, although he acknowledged that the law does not provide for such exceptions.

Lascher, a former president of the Ventura County Bar Assn. who specializes in appellate law, said the suit was filed in Orange County because one of the plaintiffs, Timothy Buhl, lives there.

The suit is being supported by ABATE of California (the American Brotherhood Aimed Toward Education) and several other motorcyclist groups, according to Mike Osborn of Ventura, an ABATE director.

Named as defendants are Maurice Hannigan, commander of the California Highway Patrol; Frank Zolin, director of the state Department of Motor Vehicles; Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates, and Paul Walters, police chief in Santa Ana where the suit was filed.