A recent Associated Press article noted the increase in the number of motorcyclists dying on Kansas roads. There were 64 motorcyclist fatalities last year, double the number in 2001.

Kansas also was above the national average for such fatalities. Motorcyclists accounted for 14 percent of the 468 people who died in Kansas traffic accidents last year, compared with the national average of 11 percent.

Various sources cite different possible reasons for the nationwide increase in motorcyclist deaths, including the age of baby boomers who are showing a renewed interest in motorcycles. One big factor that should be of interest to Kansas residents, however, is motorcyclists’ use of helmets.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:

• An unhelmeted motorcyclist is 40 percent more likely to suffer a fatal head injury than a helmeted motorcyclist when involved in a crash.
• Motorcycle helmets reduce the likelihood of a crash fatality by an estimated 37 percent.
• A study conducted at the University of Southern California, which analyzed 3,600 crash reports involving motorcycles, concluded that wearing helmets was the single most important factor in surviving motorcycle crashes.
• In the first year after enacting a universal helmet use law, motorcycle fatalities declined by 33 percent in Oregon, 32 percent in Nebraska, 23 percent in Texas, 15 percent in Washington state, 37 percent in California and 20 percent in Maryland.

Twenty states now require all motorcycle riders to wear helmets; three states have no helmet laws. Kansas is among the other 27 states that have limited helmet laws. Kansas, like many of the other 26 states, requires helmet use only for riders under the age of 18.

It would be nice to think that by the age of 18, Kansas residents would have acquired enough judgment and common sense to voluntarily wear a helmet when on a motorcycle, but that, unfortunately, isn’t the case. The argument in Kansas always has been that adults have a right to make their own choices about such things, but that principle no longer is applied to seat belt use and it shouldn’t be applied to helmet use.

Motorcycle riders are more vulnerable to injury in traffic accidents for many reasons, but if the state wants to reduce the number of motorcyclists killed on Kansas highways, statistics show that requiring all riders to wear helmets is a good place to start.