Replying to a message of Richard Webb to Bob Ackley:

 BA>> Incidentally, there is no law in Iowa that requires
 BA>> motorcyclists to wear helmets (something that drives the
 BA>> control freaks in the national DOT nutso). The requirement
 BA>> for hard hats on construction jobs is most likely a
 BA>> company policy driven by its insurance carrier rather than
 BA>> a law of any kind. 

 RW> Yep, IOwa motorcycle riders got a helmet law actually
 RW> repealed in IOwa way back when.  I had friends working both
 RW> sides of that one when it came up.

Something over a decade ago the Nebraska legislature, at the behest
of the federal DOT bureaucrooks, passed a motorcycle helmet law.  The
*people* of the state of Nebraska repealed that law with a petition drive
sponsored by various organizations of motorcycle riders.  DOT bureaucrooks
went absolutely ballistic and threatened to cut off Nebraska's highway funds
if the legislature did not immediately re-impose that law.  The legislature
rolled over and played dead for the feds, and passed a new helmet law.  Had
*I* been the governor I would have announced that (a) I would veto another
helmet law and (b) the day federal funds were cut off would be the day that I-80
would not be patrolled or maintained - to include plowing snow and finding,
investigating or cleaning up any accidents or other mishaps - until those
funds were reinstated.

 RW>  My dad said it was a sad
 RW> day for the people of IOwa when they repealed it.  My old
 RW> man rode his Harleys and other bikes for years, and never
 RW> mounted one without his skid lid, and I wasn't allowed to
 RW> either back when I was doing a lot of playing off road with
 RW> small motorcycles as a kid.

The fact that the state doesn't tell you that you HAVE to wear a helmet doesn't
mean that you cannot wear one.  It's a freedom thing.

The only law a state needs on the books WRT motor vehicle safety is that the
failure to use protective equipment is grounds for being held at fault for injuries
such equipment would have prevented or mitigated.  That's for helmets *and* seat
belts (I have worn seat belts religiously since about 1960).

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