Motorcycle Helmet Laws

    ATLANTA, GA, August 14, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Every state in the United States required motorcyclists to wear helmets until the mid 1970s. When the federal government no longer tied their funding to helmet laws, many states stopped requiring riders to wear the protective headgear. As it stands, only about 20 states have helmet laws, and Georgia is one of them.

Georgia Motorcycle Helmet Law

Georgia's motorcycle helmet law is very clear: everyone who rides on or operates a motorcycle must wear protective headgear that meets the minimum standards outlined by the Georgia Department of Public Safety. In Georgia, statistics reveal that about 20 percent of motorcycle accidents result in injuries to your head and neck. These types of injuries are the most serious, and often lead to the most fatalities. If you are a motorcyclist or passenger who wears a helmet, your chance of sustaining a life-threatening or permanently debilitating injury is significantly reduced.

Motorcycle Accidents in Georgia

Many of the motorcycle accidents that occur in Georgia happen when the motorcycle is traveling a short distance, under 30 miles per hour. At slower speeds, a helmet will not protect you from other common from injuries such as:

- Road rash
- Broken bones
- Internal injuries
- Cuts and lacerations

However, few can argue that a helmet will not protect you against traumatic brain injuries. A recent study from Johns Hopkins University reveals that motorcycle helmets may also help riders and drivers from some spinal cord injuries.

The Johns Hopkins Spinal Cord Injury Study

It has been a longstanding debate as to whether a motorcycle helmet will protect motorcyclists from spinal cord injuries in the event of a collision. Helmet opponents point to a 1980s study where an economic professor determined that the weight of a motorcycle helmet could actually cause harm to the spinal cord. However, the recent study by physicians at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine concludes that motorcyclists who wore helmets are 22 percent less likely to suffer "cervical spine injuries" during a crash as opposed to motorcyclists who were not wearing the protective headgear. The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

In Atlanta and throughout the state of Georgia, if you are driving or riding on a motorcycle, the law states that you must wear a helmet.

Common Reasons for Motorcycle Accidents

While helmets are helpful in preventing serious head and some spinal cord injuries, you can still become severely injured in an Atlanta motorcycle accident, even if you are wearing a helmet.

Serious injuries resulting from motorcycle accidents occur in four out of five crashes. Unlike the stereotype implies, most motorcycle crashes are not the result of excessive speed, reckless driving or other negligent behavior. Because of their size, motorcycles are commonly unseen by other drivers. Even if the driver of a car, truck or SUV checks its blind spots, it may fail to see a motorcycle. The leading cause of a motorcycle crash occurs when the driver of a passenger vehicle pulls out into an intersection or turns left into the motorcyclist's right of way.

There are a number of other factors that can lead to an Atlanta motorcycle accident, such as:

- Poor road conditions
- Defective roadways
Traffic congestion
- Aggressive or reckless driving
- Signaling error
- Drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol
- Automobile or truck driver fatigue
- Motorcycle defects

If you were involved in an Atlanta motorcycle accident and sustained injuries, please visit the webpage for the Atlanta personal injury lawyers at Robbins & Associates, P.C. today for more information at www.robbinslaw.com.

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