BajaNomad

helmet law

Bajabus - 11-22-2003 at 03:24 PM

Does anyone know if there is one in baja?

JESSE - 11-22-2003 at 04:02 PM

Yes, but rarely enforced, a gringo might be giving a great excuse for a Mexican cop to stop him, so i would wear one of i was you.

And it pays not to be a dumb butt and leave your wife a widow!

Stephanie Jackter - 11-22-2003 at 04:24 PM

I've got a friend's niece from La Paz visiting and I disguised my total pleasure as I told her how it's the law and if she was gonna ride in AZ, she must wear it. Be smart and do the same. The board wouldn't be the same without you...... - Stephanie

Bajabus - 11-22-2003 at 04:25 PM

Ah... good to know. Thanks Jesse, much appreciated.

Anonymous - 11-22-2003 at 06:16 PM

I was ticketed in San Lucas for no helmet a few years ago, went to the station and paid the fine. It was about $7.00, don't remember what the exchange rate was then. After paying the fine I got a picture of me in front of the police station holding the ticket and the cop standing by me with his shotgun. The photo was worth the seven bucks.
KurtG

JESSE - 11-22-2003 at 10:06 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Anonymous
I was ticketed in San Lucas for no helmet a few years ago, went to the station and paid the fine. It was about $7.00, don't remember what the exchange rate was then. After paying the fine I got a picture of me in front of the police station holding the ticket and the cop standing by me with his shotgun. The photo was worth the seven bucks.
KurtG


It sure did;)

Good answer Steph

Debra - 11-22-2003 at 10:23 PM

Helmet laws SUCK!!!

capt. mike - 11-23-2003 at 07:16 AM

let those who ride decide!!
And P.S. - i wear one at times....and at times i don't, that is in states that allow an option. i think they should be mandatory for minors, but as for adults - their choice - freedom on the road!

if you want to know what helmets can do to you (yes - wearing one can be dangerous, believe it or not!) check out A.B.A.T.E. WHICH LOBBIES HARD and successfully to get mandatory helmet laws repealed. I'm not against the use of helmets per se, i'm against the frickin guvment telling me how to manage myself.
freedoms are eroding people! be vigilent!

tunaeater - 11-23-2003 at 07:16 AM

I was also ticketed in San Felipe last year during mothers day weekend for no helmet. I followed the cop to the station to pay the $7 dollar ticket but I only had 50 pesos in my pocket. They kept my motorcycle until I returned with the correct amount. I borrowed a few bucks from a passer by and got my bike back. I was camping at Pete's camp so I was concerned I would get another one while ridding back from town. The cop gave me a receipt and said don't worry just show them you already paid a ticket and are on your way back to camp.... I passed 2 more cops on the way back and they didn't stop me. I see people ridding all over SF without helmets. I guess it is only enforced when necessary...Paul

Bajabus - 11-23-2003 at 08:40 AM

I was asking for a friend....I'm scared to death of motorcycles. I feel safer working with dynamite and fabricating explosives and fireworks. Anyway here is my general opinion of helmet and seatbelt laws:

If you don't want to wear a seat belt or helmet thats fine with me but it should dis-qualify your insurance company from paying out any monies towards medical bills. Why should my rates go up because someone likes the wind in his/her hair or is too lazy to strap in (medical exemption not withstanding).

perhaps I'm wrong. I would appreciate seeing statistics that said otherwise.

Natalie Ann - 11-23-2003 at 10:24 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Bajabus
If you don't want to wear a seat belt or helmet thats fine with me but it should dis-qualify your insurance company from paying out any monies towards medical bills. Why should my rates go up because someone likes the wind in his/her hair or is too lazy to strap in (medical exemption not withstanding).


Refusal to wear a helmet should also excuse from work the police and highway patrol, as well as the nurses and doctors who have to peel your face off the pavement and try to replace it with a new one (all also paid for with my tax dollar).

My close friend is a Harley gal, hit face first an obstacle in town at 30 mph with one of those silly half-helmets. Coma for 90 days, 6 months in nursing care center, 1-1/2 years in and out of surgeries. She now wears a full helmet to protect her lovely new face.:O

Tony D - 11-23-2003 at 12:13 PM

I agree with Natalie,that helmet and seatbelt laws are for the sake of EMT's,police ,and firemen who must pick up the pieces.If our society allowed the buzzards to do this work,then maybe your right to choose would be appropriate.

I had a friend......

Stephanie Jackter - 11-23-2003 at 12:29 PM

back in the early eighties. She had the most gorgeous bone structure you've ever seen on a woman - a really striking latin beauty with perfect skin and a hot body to go with it.

Things change so quickly sometimes. One day she was at a party at my house sitting on the couch and giving a massage to her boyfriend and jokingly saying "I wanna die young and leave behind a good looking corpse, ha ha ha".

The next weekend were the closed casket funerals for both her and her boyfriend. A couple of days after the party, they drove out of a bar without helmets on and got hit by a truck. There was no face left on either one of them.

Mike, I haven't had a chance yet to look at the site you recommended, but I know the arguments, having had acquaintances who were anti helmet laws over the years. But statistically, it's just like seat belt opposition. Although occasionally, a seat belt will get stuck and trap a person in a car or break with impact and the person goes through the windshield anyway, the vast, vast, vast majority of the time, they save lives. The same goes for motorcycle and bike helmets. It is not a fantasy of some nosey govt. agency that society benefits enough from their use to make it law. It is fact. You can probably get the real scoop on lives saved at the CDC web site.

And to those who think that all might be equalized by not having to either make insurance companies responsible for the "stupids" out there that don't observe the laws or not be responsible for scraping them off the pavement at all, society pays one way or the other, either in having to foot the bill for the indigent care when the long term brain injured wind up on the public roles, or in caring for the family that person left behind.

My ex's best friend is doing his little mid- life crisis thing on the back of a Harley he bought a few months ago without a helmet. I worry every day. He has three teenagers and a wife and family that all love him, but he's willing to risk it all for a little wind in his hair. I could just kill him.....

....Hope he doesn't die. - Stephanie

jerry - 11-23-2003 at 03:15 PM

just remember when ever you vote to take away someone elses right to choose your flushing some of your rights away with it
perhaps we should look at the uninsured as ways of keeping our costs down?? thats where the big money is
perhaps we who have insurance should wear a big colored noose around our necks so everyone could be as uncomfortable as riding with a helmet on and enyone driving without the noose gets a fine lol have a good one just jerry

Don't delude yourself, Jerry.

Stephanie Jackter - 11-23-2003 at 04:14 PM

The more crowded this world gets, the more rules are necessary to keep stupid people from screwing up everybody elses party. I like the freedom from excessive laws I feel in Mexico just fine until I see a one year old walking up to stick his finger in a live electrical socket that nobody cares about. I scoop him up quickly to save his life and then I have to rethink it a little. We have laws against that kind of thing in this country. Fewer kids die from somebody elses negligence, and society benefits.

Are you against seat belt laws, even knowing they've saved tens of thousands of lives? Where do you draw the cost/benefit line as to which laws benefit society enough to curtail people's rights? It has to be drawn somewhere, no? I've been clear about where I think the line should be. If society has to bare the burden of someone's stupidity and that stupidity can be managed away by law, I have no problem with saving that person from himself and all the other people that he might injure. - Stephanie

taken to its extreme, and some of you "cradle

capt. mike - 11-23-2003 at 06:11 PM

to grave" liberal whackjobs out there would....helmets should be worn in cars too! afterall, most road fatalities are head injuries, right?? you're missing the point, if you get hit hard on a bike, a helmet may or may not protect your noggin, while your lower 1/2 of your body is MISSING! so what did you gain? Life and its joy and experiences have risks people! you have to justify the ones for yourself that you want to take part in! Would a stupid helmet save my arse if i crash my plane?? no, it wouldn't - so, should i stop recreational flying, which kills hundreds each year?? my mother sure would be pleased if i didn't fly anymore. lets all just stay at home and watch TV, that's a super safe sport!

do what you like cause its your life to live as much as you want. that's why i said mandatory helmet laws are perhaps ok for minors, but i'd rather their parents decided for them until they are of age. the gosh darned guvment is not my parent, although i think a few of you here would like the guvment to be yours.....

Bajabus - 11-23-2003 at 06:28 PM

As I said I really don't give a rats a*s*s if someone wants to wear a helmet or not.
I just don't want to pay for it.

Anonymous - 11-23-2003 at 10:16 PM

Hey you guys! Don't forget to wear a safety helmet on your other "head", too. Help prevent accidents and medical expenses.:o

safety

jerry - 11-23-2003 at 10:20 PM

im wondering how many ppl here speaking has ever ridden a bike with a helmet?? i have for yrs
as far as safety is conserned put limited visabilty for the operator and ones inability to hear any sound in the stats and ill think you will find that the cure is worse then the problem
allways some good meaning fokes trying to save us from our selves
im sure glade that mexico dosnt let us vote or we would have it as messed up as the place we are all from just jerry

unabajababe - 11-23-2003 at 10:22 PM

There is a helmet law in Baja. Whether it is enforced at all times is questionable. I know someone last year who was fined heavily for not wearing a helmet while operating an ATV. With visitor centers in most cities in Baja, this is where you should inquire. Good luck....

thx Jerry, you rreally hit the nail

capt. mike - 11-24-2003 at 05:52 AM

on the head, so to speak.
that's why loud pipes can save lives too!

and Bus, sorry...but you're too late on that, the system has evolved already thx to atty's and insurance conglomerates...i have to pay for the stuff that happens to you too! And that's whether you caused it indirectly or not. welcome to state supported social welfare amigos!

Bajabus - 11-24-2003 at 06:03 AM

Hey Mike you are a nice guy and everyone is entitled to an opinion. I didn't intend to open a can of worms here.....just wanted to know what the law was in baja. You could ride butt naked for all I care and if you banged your noggen I would send a contribution to the trust fund for a drool bib and colostomy bag. Hope we meet again for dinner some day.....last time was fun.
Like my mom is fond of saying "fly low and fly slow"

jerry - 11-24-2003 at 07:39 AM

hea grover i think your headed in the right direction (choice) not laws

steph

jerry - 11-24-2003 at 07:50 AM

sorry to hear about your friends
do you think that perhaps us older ugly people with bad bone structure and bad bodys should be able to get an exemtion from the helmet laws?? it isnt going to be a pretty funeral anyway lol jerry(P.S. dont take me too seriously

From someone who does the scraping up.

FrankO - 11-24-2003 at 08:25 AM

I don't care what you wear. Most head injuries in vechicle crashes are from unrestrained victims. See it all the time, the passenger compartement is intact but that head thru the windshield or on the road is a little hamburgered. If they had just stayed in the car they'd be walking around. Up to you.
Most bike wrecks are pretty benign. It's that little bump on an unhelmeted head that's a b-tch.
Just stay insured so your family doesn't have to suck it up.

Neal Cox - 11-24-2003 at 08:37 AM

The original question was whether there is a helmet law in Baja, it seems there is. There is also a seat belt law, I know from experience. I was motioned to the side of the road in San Jose del Cabo for not wearing one. I had just lost my wallet and all of my ID (another story) and while waiting for the cop's superior to arrive, I pointed out to the cop that motioned me over that virtually every local driving by was not wearing a seat belt. He just shrugged. I, fortunately, did not have to pay a fine, but be aware that if you do not wear a seat belt or a motorcycle helmet you open yourself up to helping support the local economy a little more than you intended. But then, a broken windshield or almost anything else will earn you the same right.

[Edited on 11-24-2003 by Neal Cox]

Brain Buckets

hyme7of9 - 11-24-2003 at 09:39 AM

The rational for not wearing a helmet is that your head is saved but your spinal cord is severed at the neck leaving you a quad.This is what you hear from anti - helmet people.I think it should be personal choice.Let those who don't want to wear one pay a MUCH higher insurance premium than the rest.Insurance is null and void if you goof and haven't payed the extra premium.Your medical care comes out of a fund created by the extra payed by the no helmit carriers .Your bike is not covered. Lets send this idea to the Terminator and see what he says.As a bike rider I'm sure he has some ideas on the subject.Maybe he'll put it to a referendum.Adios.Hyme

hola Grover, interesting stuff,

capt. mike - 11-24-2003 at 11:25 AM

i wear a shoulder restraint in my comanche that i paid a lot to have retrofitted as it was not stock in 1961!

feeel its $$ well worth the investment as i do not want to have my panel knobs embedded into my forehead when i rapidly lose forward momentum! as for takeoff and landing phases....i think i want total freedom of movement and all sensory input unrestrained.....but WTF, you can't win them all.
i do enjoy a solo ride down a long deserted stretch of road when its warm sans a helmet, AZ lets us choose to do that if/when appropriate! if i was on a dirt bike or quad ratting around the des, i't be with a good helmet. its a matter of intelligent choice here.

Bus, if you're cooking, i'm eating.....i'll bring the wine and an opposing view if called for! debate is fun! i'm even swayed at times from my generally intractible positions!

I have to agree with Frank O and Hyme7of9

Debra - 11-24-2003 at 09:41 PM

This is a hard one for me, it shouldn't be the "law' to mandate (IMHO) stupity....Adults have the right figure out what is right or wrong for themselves, as long as they aren't putting others in danger because of their choices, what I forgot....(for a moment), was the people like FrankO and others (such as my Uncle Terry, who left his job as a Cop to go somewhere where they have no cars, he scraped one too many little girls off the road) is that THEY have to deal with the carnage and grief of the people THEY have to inform when these choices are made. Soooo, is it really toooo much to ask that everyone do everything we can to protect the people that we love? And protect the people that we don't even know who try to protect us?