Lawmakers: Helmet law doesn’t belong in N.H.

Dan Atkinson

September 21, 2007 09:48 pm

— As the Live Free or Die state imposes bans on smoking in restaurants and slots at places like Seabrook Greyhound Park, those riding motorcycles likely won’t have helmets regulated anytime soon.
Despite a federal agency’s recommendation that all states make motorcycle helmets mandatory, New Hampshire lawmakers say they don’t see it happening in New Hampshire.
And that’s just fine by motorcyclists on both sides of the border.
“We’d probably go to Maine or Connecticut (if they changed),” said Amesbury resident Paul Cote, the legislative director for the Massachusetts Motorcycle Association.
Citing the rising number of motorcycle fatalities over the past decade, the National Transportation Safety Board last week urged New Hampshire and the 26 other states that have only partial helmet laws to require all motorcyclists to wear helmets. Currently, only motorcyclists under 18 are required to wear helmets in New Hampshire.
Mark Preston, a police officer for 17 years, a N.H. state legislator and a former motorcycle owner, thinks New Hampshire needs to live by its motto.
“It seems the way things are going, some of the mandates are telling people what’s good for them,” Preston said yesterday. “It’s enough of Big Brother looking over their shoulder.”
Preston admits when he rode a Honda 750 in his younger days, he never wore a helmet, “unless I went into (Massachusetts).” He’s also seen firsthand the results of a motorcycle crash involving someone not wearing a helmet, but he does not think the state should push safety on its residents.
“I would encourage people to wear helmets, but I couldn’t see voting for any law that mandates that,” Preston said yesterday.
Rep. Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, a member of the Legislature’s Transportation Committee, said he would never support a helmet law.
“There’s no question it’s a piece of safety, but once you become an adult, you have to become responsible for your own decisions,” said Packard, who has ridden motorcycles for 39 years. The nine-term legislator said sometimes he wears a helmet, but other times he doesn’t.
The NTSB is full of “latecomers to the party,” Cote said. While he praised the board’s investigations of plane crashes and shipwrecks, Cote said the board does not have the experience to make meaningful recommendations about motorcycle safety.
“They should stay out of the motorcycle business,” Cote said. “I’m pretty upset they’re coming in here and blasting us.”
Cote said the best way to prevent accidents is to promote cyclist safety and education, not through helmet laws. Cote waxed philosophical, saying that motorcyclists — and people in general — spend their lives cheating death. Why not “Live Free”?
“Until Ted Williams or Walt Disney wakes up and tells us how they did it, there’s a number marked next to all of our lives,” Cote said.

Staff writer Eric Parry contributed to this report.

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