Florida Helmet Law Statistics and the Truth

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been concealing some very convincing facts in their crusade to promote helmet laws. In their efforts to sway public opinion in favor of mandatory helmet laws, NHTSA and others have been quick to point out an increase in Florida's motorcycle fatalities in the year following a repeal of their lid law. What they fail to mention, however, is that a jump in motorcycle ownership has outpaced the fatality rate, and ABATE of Florida has compiled the actual numbers to refute the apparently flawed statistics being circulated by the federal agency.

"These figures represent the statistics for the first full year of our amended helmet law," explains James 'Doc' Reichenbach, President and Lobbyist for ABATE of Florida and chairman of the board for the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (NCOM). 'As you can see, the actual number of deaths were up 11%, however the motorcycle registrations were up 20.4%, which represents an increase of over 40,000 new motorcycles on the roads. After all the figures are compiled according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, the death rate was actually down by 5.2%."

Also, based on the 40,000 new motorcycles on the road this past year, ABATE made the following estimates of what this amended law has brought into the economy of Florida:

• 40,000 new motorcycles at an average of $10,000 each: $400,000,000
• Sales tax on motorcycles at 6%: $ 24,000,000
• Registration fee on motorcycles: $ 1,444,000
• Change of title: $ 1,190,000
• Total: $ 426,634,000

"This total is almost one half a BILLION dollars in one year that was put into the
economy of the state of Florida," says Doc. "Of this amount, over 25 million dollars went directly into the state treasury for the budget. This also does not include the tourist money that increased because of Florida being a freedom of choice state. In 2001 over 300,000,000 dollars was spent in Florida at Bike Week during a ten day period." The 2002 figures are not available yet.

"I hope these figures will help anyone who has heard the bad publicity that has come of our amended law," Doc summarized. "Deaths per mile ridden are down and the economy has gotten a huge boost."