Massachusetts Town To Take Bikes From Kids Who Ignore Helmet Law
They mean business in Holliston, Massachusetts. Police there, frustrated by kids ignoring state helmet laws, have said they plan to confiscate bikes from youngsters who repeatedly ignore the directive.
"We're not looking to take bikes away from the kids who forget their helmets," School Resource Officer David Gatchell told the Boston Globe. "This isn't something where we're looking to collect a hundred bikes. We don't want to seize bikes, but for the kids who repeatedly ignore the warnings, it will happen."
The police department already offers free helmets to those who need one, and will be conducting an education and awareness campaign about the law and the strategy they plan to use in its enforcement.
Question -- is confiscating bikes from kids who ignore the helmet law going too far? Comment below.
Image: Photodisc/Getty
Comments
Good Idea. lets do the same with cars , take the car for people with out headsets talking on the phn. and other poor driving habits.
How about giving adults and children fines instead? I was driving to work today and saw a father (not wearing a helmet) riding with his 2 children who were wearing helmets. Where is the example here? Nothing bugs me more than an adult, riding with children, without a helmet!
Yes, it is going too far. Confiscation of personal property without due process is specifically prohibited in the Constitution of the United States. I don’t understand why citizens have meekly allowed this.
Come on, Commonwealth of Massachusetts!
Weren’t you the province of patriots at one time? What happened?
I am suspecting the bikes are returned at some point but it might just make kids think twice. Here is the point of the issue, if it saves one kids melon in a crash then its a success.
As for the Dad, its the same as smoking parents, nothing you can do but wonder. Can’t do anything about the adult but at least he is smart enough to have the kids wearing one.
It makes me wonder if the police don’t have more important things to do like maybe catch drunk drinkers, vicious criminals,vandals and the like than taking bikes away from kids.
Maybe we live in a society that tries to eliminate all risks.But there may be more self-destructive behavior out there today. I am wondering how I was able to survive the Fifties and Sixties as a kid.
No seatbelts in cars, no helmets for either bicyclists or motorcyclists,smoking abound,why I could even buy cigarettes as a 9 year old and the swings and monkeybars were on concrete!
We are truly in a “nanny society”. Massachusetts may have a helmet law for cycles but Ohio doesn’t and I rarely wear mine. There are other ways to enforce a law rather than take a kid’s bike from them. While the kid may be breaking the law by riding without a helmet, I am sure that the cops will be breaking one by confiscating those bikes.
770 bicyclists died on US roads in 2006.
About 540,000 bicyclists visit emergency rooms with injuries every year. Of those, about 67,000 have head injuries, and 27,000 have injuries serious enough to be hospitalized.
1 in 8 of the cyclists with reported injuries had a brain injury.
A very high percentage of cyclists’ brain injuries can be prevented by a helmet, estimated at anywhere from 45 to 88 per cent.
• Usage rates: Sommers Point, NJ, where a state helmet law is in effect, found that only 24 of the 359 students who rode to school in one week of the Winter of 2002 wore helmets (6 per cent) until the School District adopted a helmet rule. North Carolina observed 17 per cent statewide before their law went into effect in 2001. Others:
o Portland: 76% (transportation cyclists)
o Alaska: 17% to 35%
o WEashington State 33% in east to 56% in western areas.
o Duval County FL: Toddlers 100%, most others 25%
o Ft Lauderdale, FL: 25%
o Hollywood, FL: 15%
o Hawai’i 2002: 20%
Without punishment there is no reason to follow the law, the fear of loosing your bike (weather they can take or not) is enough incentive to maybe save a life.
it’s stupid to make people wear helmets on bikes, but not in cars. about 40,000 americans die every year in car crashes. how many die in bicycle crashes?
Ask the parent of a brain injured child. End of discussion.
I grew up in an era of no helmets for cycling, or hockey, and baseball just wore ear protection and football helmets just had one bar. If you had any more protection or wore a helmet for hockey you were a sissy well the truth is now you were very smart and we were pushing our luck too far and now thankful no one was ever seriously hurt. Bravo to the State of Massachuetts for this law. And the City enforcing this with confiscating the bike I am sure they can get it back and get a free helmet, it will be a great lesson. Today I ride my bike and wear a helmet even tho I still think its sissy but I am better protected and knowing my odds are better survival than without it.
I fell once. Body and head hit the asphalt. Broken elbow, ached body, head fine. I forgot about helmets after using them for a couple rides. I trained my kids to wear them, even if their friends do not use them. They think their friends are idiots for not wearing them (I make them watch the ER tv shows…). I asked a parent of one of my kid’s friends and he said “helmet? to expensive!” Yeah right.
Count me in on the confiscation of property without due process side of this issue.Read the 4th amendment of the US Constitution. How would you like it if the Holliston MA police seized your car if they saw you not wearing seat belts? Freedom First.
I wear a helmet when I ride my bike and motorcycle, also seat belts in my car. BUT the GOVERMENT has NO RIGHT to tell anyone to do with their body, it is a personal choice. Take I will decide what is right for my family NOT you. NOTE, My family wears helmets and seat belts, it’s our choice, not the Govs.