[wplug] OT: Risk management (helmet laws)

Bryon Gill bgtrio at yahoo.com
Tue Jun 13 07:24:47 EDT 2006


I am very sympathetic to the libertarian line on the helmet issue (i.e., the 
"it's my head and if I want it bashed in that's my business" argument).  The 
problem is that there's a competing property right; the liability suffered by 
other drivers on the public roads.  The cost of medical care for someone 
wearing a helmet in a crash is (I imagine) lower than that for someone not 
wearing one.  This will be paid for by insurance policies.

In other words, by not taking proper safety precautions, helmetless cyclists are 
making driving more expensive for the rest of us.  Perhaps there's a way to fix 
this by adjusting the law so that helmetless cyclists assume full risk of 
head/neck injuries in any accident, but that hardly seems reasonable when the 
helmetless cyclist is not at fault in an accident.

I think it's interesting that communities built around free software attract 
people who are both philosophically libertarian and philosophically leftward 
leaning; it seems that there is a nice intersection between the two where 
individual control of software is concerned.  I think the different opinions 
on the helmet issue (and a few of the other non-technical discussions that have 
popped up here) demonstrates that very neatly.

On Tue, 13 Jun 2006, Jonathan S. Billings wrote:

> On Mon, 2006-06-12 at 18:42 -0400, Ben Beige wrote:
>> I really trhink it's nto the governmet's place to require me to think
>> of my own safty, or owe them money if they catch me being  recklace.
>> it's my neck not thiers. also helmets reduce visibility,a dn make for
>> poor perrifral vision.
>
> I tend to think of requiring a helmet an equivalent to requiring seat
> belts in cars.  They save lives, and the only way to make unreasonable
> people do it, (like Big Ben) would be to make it law.  I'd bet it's the
> same type of person who won't wear a helmet who also won't wear a seat
> belt.
>
> I ride a bike (the human-powered kind) and I definitely wouldn't be
> caught going on the roads without a helmet. They really don't limit
> peripheral vision, and you've got mirrors on most motorbikes anyway to
> help with that.
>
> If only we could convince those same unreasonable people that windows is
> a safety hazard, and if you must use it, at least wear a seat belt
> (firefox) and a helmet (firewall).
>


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