Excerpt from: Motorcycle Lawyer
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| July 06, 2009 | | Obama Administration on Motorcycle Helmet Laws | President Obama's long time associate Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Professor that taught with Obama at the University of Chicago, will be heading up the administration's Office of Information and regulatory Affairs.
This is big news for motorcyclists, because Sunstein is known for balancing the need for regulation with the behavioral analysis of how likely it is that the regulation will actually be obeyed. He believes in looking at the way people behave, and trying to work with that behavior so that any regulation is more effective.
What this has to do with motorcyclists is that Mr. Sunstein has expressed opinions about helmet laws. Traditionally a state issue, it appears that the federal government may step in. Sunstein has been quoted in the press as supporting two types of licenses for riders. One license would be the regular license. Riders with that license would be required to wear a helmet. Riders who did not want to wear helmets would apply for a different license, show proof of medical insurance, and get some sort of education in the benefits of wearing a helmet. they would then be allowed to ride without a helmet.
Supposedly, the educational training would be less biased toward " Red Line Blacktop" type scare films, and more toward an analysis of motorcycle injury statistics and helmet design.
Whether or not this will actually come to pass, no one knows, but it is certainly in the talking stages.
Also to be discussed, is how this will affect riders injured in accidents. If a rider has a preventable head injury, but is licensed to ride without a helmet, will this be treted as comparative negligence on the part of the rider, or would this be pre-empted by federal regulation?
For me, the big news is the potential for a national solution to this issue.
Even though
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