Bill has passed Senate
Read more: Local, Motorcycle Helmet, Missouri, Repeal, Seat Belt, Jimmy Shinn, Paula Gough
HANNIBAL, MO -- There are about 500 reasons a police officer call pull you over in Missouri.
But none of those involve wearing your seat belt, but that may soon change.
The Missouri House of Representatives is set to take a look at changing the state's seat belt law to primary.
That would mean an officer could pull you over for not wearing a seat belt.
As it is now, an officer can give you a ticket for not wearing a seat belt, but only after stopping you for another reason.
At the same time that bill is making its way through the legislature, a bill has passed the State Senate that would repeal the state's motorcycle helmet law.
The bill states its for riders who are at least 21 years old, and everyone would still have to wear a helmet on interstate highways.
"I could not be for it because I've seen the results of what could happen," says Sheriff Jimmy Shinn.
Marion County Sheriff Jimmy Shinn has been in law enforcement for 20 years. He says he's seen many accidents where a helmet clearly saved a life.
"That's the only protection an individual has to protect their head and hopefully prevent any type of brain injury," says Shinn.
Shinn also says he's seen motorcycle accidents where a helmet did not save a life. Still he says he's surprised the state legislature is considering this potential change in the law.
"MODOT is not supportive of repealing the helmet law. Using your helmet is a very important safety feature. Our primary focus is the safeness of our highway and people using our highways," says Paula Gough, District Engineer for MODOT.
Paula Gough is the District 3 Engineer for MODOT. She says MODOT's research shows if this bill becomes a law, helmet usage rates would drop by 50%. To put that another way, she says one out of two motorcyclists would not wear a helmet. That's a statistic she doesn't want to see.
"One important statistic is looking back at the state of Texas when they repealed their helmet law. 55 people died in 1997. After the repeal, that number skyrocketed to 511 in 2001," says Gough.
Gough says more statistics can be found at www.savemolives.org.
Some legislators say requiring a motorcyclist to wear a helmet infringes on their civil liberties.
As we mentioned, this bill has passed the Senate.
It needs to pass the House and be signed by Governor Jay Nixon before it becomes law.
