FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MMA URGENT
UPDATE - MRF News Release - CDC Task Force to Recommend Mandatory Helmet
Laws
The
Massachusetts Motorcycle Association (MMA) would like to share an important
message with its membership concerning a move by the Centers for Disease Control
(CDC) calling on all 50 States to enact Mandatory Helmet Laws.
Such draconian
measures have not been taken in this country since the mid-1960's, when the
Federal Government effectively held States hostage by withholding Federal
Highway Money, which is ultimately paid by our roadway and gas taxes, if the
States did not enact a Mandatory Helmet Law. Ultimately overturned in the
1970's, currently, 31 States have Helmet Laws that allow for Adult Choice
concerning helmets.
For over a year
now, the Centers for Disease Control has been actively taking up the mantra of
Helmets as an economic cost-savings measure -- information that has been refuted -- while ignoring the fact
that their core mission is to protect America from disease. While some of us
may joke about Motorcycling being a disease, we use it in a good context, not
the negative one the CDC has decided to paint on us all. Indeed, the CDC seems
to believe that the opportunity is to make crashes safer rather than avoid
crashing at all!
Given the
extreme threat of disease facing our country and the reemergence of virus, flu
and plague in our society brought on by more accessible international travel, it
seems that the CDC should be focusing their own "economic cost-savings" on their
number one priorities which is detecting and responding to new and emerging
health threats.
The use of
Helmets is neither new nor emerging. Although statistically motorcycle deaths
have increased per NHTSA statistics, they have not increased either
proportionally nor in excess of the rate of growth of motorcycle
ridership.
The Motorcycle
Riders Foundation (MRF) today released the following News Release concerning the
CDC's latest attack on Motorcyclists. The MMA is a firm believer in Education,
not Legislation, and ask that all concerned parties contact their state and
federal legislators immediately to both ask that they support and endorse Representative Tom Petri's letter asking the CDC to
discontinue this unnecessary research, and also to prevent endorsement of the
CDC's call for a Mandatory Helmet Law. |
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