Miami Legal Tips Blog

Motorcycle Helmets: Not the Law, But Common Sense

In the state of Florida, there are over 200,000 reported traffic accidents each year.  Several thousand of these annual auto accidents involve motorcycles.  Ride Smart Florida reports around 10,000 motorcycle crashes yearly, with nearly 8,000 of those resulting in injury.  Each year, Florida also sees an increase in motorcycle deaths, now up to nearly 500 deaths annually from a number that was once in the low 100s.

When state law mandated bikers wear helmets while riding, motorcycle deaths averaged 160 per year in Florida.  In 2001, Florida helmet laws were all but abolished, and the resulting motorcycle deaths have been on the rise ever since.

Of the roughly 15 million licensed drivers in the state of Florida, only a tiny fraction are motorcyclists.  With the ratio of cars to bikes on the road, motorcyclists are automatically at a disadvantage when it comes to safety.

Bikers are completely exposed to the elements on the road, highly vulnerable in any collision, be it a car or truck; slick roadways or harsh road conditions; or other obstacles like animals or trees.  As a motorcyclist, your only line of defense against these and many other perils on the road is a helmet.

Though helmets aren’t mandatory by law, they are the best means of protecting yourself from preventable life-altering injury or death in a bike accident.  Now nearly 15 years after the relaxation of helmet laws, Florida’s motorcycle death statistics have become a cautionary tale for other states with helmet mandates.

Florida activists are currently pushing hard to reinstate helmet laws in the near future, but there’s no time like the present to dust off the old helmet.

Automobile accidents can be devastating, costing thousands of dollars in vehicle damages on top of mounting medical bills and insurance hikes.  If you are properly insured with personal injury protection, with the help of a skilled personal injury attorney you may not have to pay any out of pocket costs at all for medical bills.  Still, wearing a motorcycle helmet is the number one way to not only minimize injuries during a crash, but it may help you to survive a motorcycle accident.

 

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