Sunday, July 13, 2008
Protect your head in a moped crash
Christian Trejbal
Recent columns
- Baptists might leave downtown Blacksburg
- A theater rises between town and campus
- Making sense of local elections
- Voters have only themselves to blame
From the RoundTable blog
Almost a year ago, Blacksburg town attorney Larry Spencer wrecked his 1983 Yamaha motorcycle. He broke his leg in the accident, but it could have been worse. At least he did not break his face.
"I ended up being pitched into some gravel, and I landed with my head down," he described. "I was wearing a full-face helmet, and it took the full force of that. It was badly scratched up."
These days, his body has healed and the bike is almost completely repaired. He is still riding, though maybe not quite as much as he used to.
But his brush with brain splatter got him thinking about helmets. He noticed that many people around Blacksburg do not wear them when they ride mopeds and those who do often choose inadequate bicycle helmets.
So he asked the council to pass a law requiring moped riders to wear eye protection -- if they do not have a windshield -- and a real helmet. Violators would face up to a $50 fine.
The council last week advanced the ordinance to a public hearing to be held Aug. 12.
With gas prices topping $4 per gallon, mopeds are increasingly popular. They get dozens of miles on a gallon and provide an affordable alternative for people who do not need to travel very far -- the typical lazy college student or environmentally conscious hippie, for example.
State law differentiates between mopeds and scooters. A moped is a motorbike with a small engine, up to 50 cc. Anything with a larger engine counts as a motorcycle in the eyes of the law. The hipster on a Vespa -- typically 150 cc or more -- is subject to motorcycle laws and must wear a helmet.
Your thoughts
- What do you think of wearing helmets on a motorized bicycle? Post to the RoundTable
Even with their small engines, mopeds can reach speeds of 35 mph, more if souped-up. That's plenty fast to crack a skull, but riders can skip hair-mussing helmets in most places. The commonwealth lets localities decide if they want moped riders to wear helmets.
Blacksburg would be the first community in the area to do so. Christiansburg, Radford and Montgomery County let people ride helmet-free.
When it comes to helmet laws, it is tempting to invoke individual liberty and natural selection. Sure, helmets make it vastly more likely people will survive wrecks, but what business is it of the state's to mandate them? Besides, the gene pool is probably better off without people foolish enough to ride around with their hair whipping in the breeze.
Sometimes, though, the state needs to legislate against stupidity for the common good. Modern medicine can keep helmetless accident victims alive for a long time in a brain-damaged state, and too often taxpayers foot the bill.
Plus, when a motorist hits and kills a moped rider, no matter who is at fault, the driver must live with it.
Not only should Blacksburg adopt a helmet ordinance, other communities should follow suit, at least until the General Assembly does something.
If gas prices remain high, as they almost certainly will, mopeds and bicycles will become more and more common on the commonwealth's roads. Divergent community rules will only cause confusion, especially where localities are close to each other as Christiansburg and Blacksburg are. A single, statewide standard would end that confusion and save more lives.
Indeed, lawmakers next year ought to fix a few related laws, too.
Not only do moped riders not need a helmet, they do not even need a driver's license. Mopeds are street legal, but their operators need not demonstrate any competency or understanding of the rules of the road.
The simplest solution, one that would kill two birds with one stone, would be to reclassify mopeds as motorcycles, instantly requiring helmets and licenses.
Then lawmakers should turn to bicycles. The helmet law for bikes is like the moped law: No statewide rule, but localities can require helmets on riders 14 years old and younger. Locally, Blacksburg and Radford do so.
But the state does not empower localities to require adults to wear them. As more grownups get in shape and save gas by riding their bikes, Virginia should demand they protect their heads.
Few people like a nanny state, but as Virginians start to think differently about transportation, the commonwealth's laws need to keep up.
In the meantime, as frugal commuters ride more scooters, bicycles and mopeds on the roads of the New River Valley, people still chained to their cars should exercise extra caution. There's room to share the road safely with everyone.
Trejbal is an editorial writer for The Roanoke Times based in the New River Valley bureau in Christiansburg.
