Posted on Thu, Jun. 29, 2006

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Head injuries spike without Pa. helmet law

"Stop the body count," doctors plead.

By Larry King

Inquirer Staff Writer

HARRISBURG - Pennsylvania motorcyclists have suffered severe head injuries at a dramatically increased clip since the state's helmet law was repealed in 2003.

In the last two years, nearly twice as many riders have landed in trauma centers with major head injuries than in the two years preceding the repeal, according to a legislative report released yesterday.

Even when adjusted for a spike in motorcycle registrations since 2001, the rate of major head injuries still went up by 55 percent.

And most of those head-injured riders - 62 percent - were riding without helmets, the study reported.

"It's time to stop the body count," said Alex Rosenau, president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians. "It's time to reduce the suffering of the families. And it's definitely time to reinstate the mandatory helmet law."

In September 2003, Pennsylvania joined the 30 states that do not require helmets of all motorcyclists. Anyone over 21 who has held a motorcycle license for two years or who has completed a special safety course is free to ride unprotected.

The issue resurfaced June 12, when Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger broke his jaw and several facial bones while riding without a helmet. He has since pledged to start wearing one.

But there appears little inclination in Harrisburg to reverse course. Even some legislators who opposed the helmet repeal say they want more definitive, time-tested data before revisiting the law.

Yesterday's report, compiled by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee, was ordered by lawmakers at the time of the repeal. An update, in which data from police, medical systems and state transportation records will more closely track the medical results and costs of motorcycle accidents, is due in July 2008.

"I realize we need to wait until [that] study comes in for our best answer," said Sen. Jay Costa Jr. (D., Allegheny), a repeal opponent who called the report "troubling."

Costa recalled the predictions of medical professionals that a repeal would cause an explosion in the number and severity of head injuries. "It appears to me that's exactly what is playing out here," he said.

Defenders of the repeal cautioned against making too much of the injury figures.

"I think they were a little lax in pointing out that some of those injuries did include helmeted riders, not just unhelmeted riders," said Charles Umbenhauer, lobbyist for Pennsylvania ABATE, a motorcyclist organization that opposes helmet laws. "There's going to have to be more data compiled and more time involved to really take a look at it."

Umbenhauer and others maintain that increases in motorcycle injuries and deaths are largely the result of a big jump in ridership.

"Head injuries have increased," said State Sen. John Wozniak (D., Cambria), the repeal's chief sponsor. "But all of the other statistics you have in here, taking into consideration the number of registered motorcycles, it's almost a statistical dead heat."

For example, the study found that 261 people died in motorcycle crashes in 2001 and 2002, the two years before the repeal. In 2004 and 2005, that went up by 39 percent, to 362 deaths.

But over the same period, motorcycle registrations increased by nearly 80,000. Adjusted against that increase, the death rate went up by 9 percent.

Head injuries, however, were way up regardless of the formula.

In 2001-02, the study found, 269 motorcyclists were admitted to trauma centers with "serious, severe or critical" head injuries. In 2004-05, that increased to 530.

That amounted to 5.6 major head injuries per 10,000 registrations in the two years before the repeal. In the two years after the repeal, that rose to 8.7 injuries per 10,000 registrations.

Beyond those statistics are a staggering human and financial toll, helmet advocates said.

"A traumatic brain injury is for life," said Rosenau, an emergency physician at Lehigh Valley Hospital. "So many motorcyclists in Pennsylvania are not required to carry medical coverage, so all of us end up paying. Their choice becomes our problem."