Motorcycle deaths rose 18 percent in the first year since Michigan bikers could ride without a helmet, according to statistics reported by David Shepardson atop The Detroit News' front page. That outpaces a 5.3-percent increse in overall state traffic fatalities during 2012.
[Photo from MDA Insurance of Okemos, Michigan.]
The number of riders killed without a helmet went from five in 2011 — less than 5 percent of all deaths — to 55, or just under 43 percent, in 2012, the Michigan State Police reported Monday. . . .
The state recorded 655 incapacitating injuries of motocrycle riders in 2012, up from 575 in 2011. The number of seriously injured riders not wearing a helmet jumped from 24 in 2011 to 195 in 2012.
Shepardson interviews David Strickland of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, who says:
"Every state that has repealed their mandatory helmet law has unfortunately seen a requisite increase in fatalities in motorcycle crashes."
Michigan last April became the 31st state letting motorcycle forego a helmet if they meet certain criteria.
