Continue to focus on use of helmets in cycle crashes
Published December 18, 2003
Re: Motorcycle rider was victim, but paper focused on helmet, letter by Mikki Robinson, Dec. 15.
I have lived in Pinellas County for more than 46 years, and I believe most people would agree that this is one of the most dangerous counties in Florida in which to drive.
When I was 16 I bought a motorcycle. I was driving on a Saturday morning and the road was slick from the morning dew. I made a right-hand turn onto Belcher Road when the bike slid out from under me and I spun 360 degrees. My helmet hit a concrete post that would have crushed my head.
Mikki Robinson wrote a letter wondering why the newspaper focuses on the fact that the motorcyclist was not wearing a helmet. I say the paper can't mention it enough. I believe the Florida law allowing motorcyclists to ride without helmets was one of the stupidest things the governor got passed, and Mikki should be scared to death to be driving a motorcycle on these roads without a helmet. To blame the elderly drivers is the kind of arrogance that will make her another sad statistic.
-- Kelly McClung, Dunedin
Tell drivers to share road with bikers
Re: Motorcyclist injured in morning accident, story by Chris Tisch, Dec. 5.
The reporter is missing a few tremendously important points about the safety of motorcycles. First, the victim in this crash wouldn't have been hit if the 81-year-old driver (I'll wager he's on one type of medication or another, plus visually impaired or hearing impaired or both) hadn't violated his right of way. If your biased newspaper would spend just a little time on driver awareness of how to share the road with motorcycles, that would save lives.
Second, if the reporter would ever have the courage (and momma's permission) to ride a motorcycle, you might get enough of an education to know the best helmet is only effective for a direct impact of less than 20 mph. Any speed above that and the brain cavity is destroyed.
I have been riding motorcycles in Pinellas County for more than 30 years. Safety and survival are on my mind every time I ride. I have had many long talks with Cpl. James Bordner of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office about motorcycles and motorcycle helmet safety. Why? Because I do have the experience to have a qualified opinion.
Third, if your research was a little more open-minded, you'd realize that not wearing a helmet gives the rider a better line of vision and unrestricted hearing so that he or she can avoid the idiots in their cars.
Not wearing a helmet helps the rider keep a sense of mortality. A helmet (believing the propaganda you dribble out) can give the rider a false sense of security.
On the night of Oct. 13, 2000, James Harold McGlynn Jr. had that false sense of security. He was wearing a $400 helmet and so was his passenger, Lauren, when he and his buddy Robert Christopher Spoto were riding their brand new Kawasaki Ninjas at three times the speed limit on Phillippe Parkway. The sheriff's deputies tried to pursue but couldn't catch them until McGlynn failed to negotiate the 20 mph curve at Washington Drive. He and Spoto walked away. My daughter Lauren Marie Girard, 18 years 10 months old, was killed. Do you people have a clue what is really happening out there? You need to use your power of the media to save lives, not just spread propaganda about helmet safety while protecting bad drivers.
Patricia Willets, 46, was killed on Dec. 21, 2001, not because she wasn't wearing a helmet, but because Aaron B. Nugent, 29, turned his 1980 Buick Regal in front of her and her trike exploded. He pleaded no contest to DUI-manslaughter, but you morons report that she wasn't wearing a helmet.
Why don't you really do your homework and find the real statistics that will identify how many brothers and sisters have died due to the carelessness of others, and try to change things in a positive way that might make the roads of Florida truly safer? If you would promote this simple tribute to all of the fallen motorcyclists you might do some good: "Look twice, save a life. Motorcycles are everywhere."
-- Chris Girard, Largo
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