CT motorcyclists fight helmet law proposal
Every few years, state officials motivate Connecticut motorcycle enthusiasts to descend on the State Capitol by the hundreds in defense of the option not to wear helmets.
The 2022 version of the proposal is different, because with COVID protocols still in place, the legislative Transportation Committee held a virtual hearing on Monday.
And instead of hundreds of riders flooding the Capitol zone, only a few spoke, led by Richard Paukner of Easton, a CPA representing the membership of the Connecticut Motorcycle Riders Association, Inc. who said the organization was giving lawmakers a break. But they still want to enjoy the freedom they have felt since 1976, when the General Assembly repealed the mandatory helmet law.
The riders association is against state Transportation Commissioner Joseph Giulietti’s’s updated proposal, which is nestled in a larger agency bill that includes administrative initiatives including a ban on alcohol consumption in motor vehicles.
“The safety of the traveling public is our No. 1 priority,” Giulietti told the committee, adding that among the 68 motorcycle fatalities in 2021, the highest since 1987, 60 percent of the riders were not wearing helmets.
“Why is it that there are 31 states currently that allow adults, adults, the right to choose whether or not to wear a helmet,” Paukner said. “This issue is not the way it’s been portrayed so many times over so many years as a black-and-white safety issue. It is not that.” He said that motorcycle education programs have resulted in sharply reduced rates of fatal crashes.
He said that back in 1982, the first year of rider education programming, there were 80,000 registered motorcyclists and 99 fatalities. The number of motorcycle accidents with injuries was 3,107. In 2019, there were 38 fatal crashes and there were 759 collisions with injuries.
“We have made tremendous strides,” Paukner said. “It took two years after the rider-ed program began to really kick in, but once it kicked-in, it made a dramatic decline in crashes and injuries and serious injuries. We were the only group that was pushing hard for rider education.”
Paukner, citing the association’s similar position in 2019, left it open to state lawmakers to possibly create a law that would make helmets required equipment for those under
“Why is it that there are 31 states currently that allow adults, adults, the right to choose whether or not to wear a helmet. This issue is not the way it’s been portrayed so many times over so many years as a black-and-white safety issue. It is not that.” Richard Paukner of Easton, a CPA representing the membership of the Connecticut Motorcycle Riders Association, Inc.
21. “One of our philosophical core issues here is the concept that the law should treat minors differ
ent than adults,” he said. ‘You can haggle over at what age one becomes an adult.”
State Rep. Tom O’Dea, R-New Canaan, who has rejected proposals in the past to enact mandatory helmet laws, admitted that he is inching closer to approving the measure this year. “I do see your arguments on freedom,” O’Dea said.