Safety in the Head

David Alexander

English 1 B

Mrs. Moore

4-24-03

Safety in the head

John, being around for your next birthday would be great, so you need to use this helmet, it will save me many days of grief. Please wear this helmet when you ride your motorcycle. Having you come home to the neighborhood is a better feeling then you going home to a grave. This helmet will protect your head from hard hits that you will encounter when you fall off your motorcycle. Wearing a helmet will save you from getting a mangled face.

Since you feel that you are too cool to wear a helmet, let me advise you that having an attitude like that is not smart. When you wear this helmet it offers you protection from head injuries that occur when you fall. The pictures that are in the medical files show causes of death, involving motorcycle related crashes. The pictures are not too cool to look at. The pictures show dead bodies with faces and body parts that have been grounded down to the bone so much that they are not able to be recognized. I do not want you to be part of those pictures. John, you must wear this helmet when you ride. Another advantage to wearing your helmet is the face shield, the shield protects your eyes and face from flying rocks and other debris. Not to mention all the bugs that will hit your face and get in your eyes. John, according to the morning sun, the number of people killed in traffic accidents increased slightly last year partly due to yet another jump in fatal motorcycle accidents. Federal estimates released last week show that after many years of decline, motorcycle deaths steadily increased from 97-01, and have grown 27% in the four-year period. Last year there were 2680 motorcycle deaths. According to the national highway safety administration, that is 208 more than in 1999, enough to offset the 188 additional traffic deaths. About one-half were caused because people were not wearing helmets or sufficient gear.

John, these numbers do not lie. This pole shows 1440 deaths that could have been saved if those people took proper precaution and equipped themselves with a helmets or sufficient gear. Since we all care for you, please do not become one of these numbers this year. Please wear your new helmet. People that have to go threw a death in the family of a loved one is so hard. People that have experienced a death know it is an emotionally draining thing to go threw. Please save us of that. The last thing that I need is a call from the hospital saying come down here and identify a body, that has been mangled so bad no one can identify it. After your close call last month, you need to think about your family and your happiness. Think of your family and friends and how much you would be missed. Do you want your kids to grow up without a father? Do you want your wife to cry herself asleep every night because she misses the man she loves. Think about how stupid you have been and start to think about the long run. Wearing the helmet would be the responsible thing to do.

To prove to you that helmets work and you will be cool wearing one, I will tell you about the deaths that occurred before an after the helmet law was put in to effect in 1992. The law appears to have lead to more than one-third decrease in the number of motorcycle deaths. Of the 212 overall deaths in New York, in 1999, 60% occurred in the pre law period and nearly 40% occurred afterwards.

Representing roughly, a 30% drop in motorcycle fatalities. In contrast the percent of motorcyclists wearing helmets at the time of a fatal crash jumped from roughly 25% in the pre-law period to 85.5 % in the post law period, the investigators found. During both pre-law and post-law periods, however,