2,000 Bikers Get Revved Up Over Helmet Legislation

Nearly 2,000 motorcycle riders ranging from Hell’s Angels to weekend touring groups descended Sunday on a popular biker rest stop near Agoura Hills to protest a mandatory helmet bill now making its way through the Legislature.

Standing outside the Rock House Store, amid glinting chrome and the pungent smell of exhaust, bikers emphasized that they were pro-choice, not anti-helmet.

“I always wear one, but I think it should be my choice,” said Jean Kroff, who said she has been riding motorcycles for 30 years.

The most popular fabrics of the day were leather--preferably black leather--or denim of any blue hue. But Kroff and many other bikers also wore black T-shirts emblazoned with the movement’s slogan, “Let those who ride decide.”

Bill Bish of North Hollywood organized the event as a member of A Brotherhood Aimed Toward Education--ABATE. Motorcyclists, most not wearing helmets, gathered near Nordhoff Recreation Center in Sepulveda at 9 a.m. and rode across the San Fernando Valley to the store. Another organization called ABATE, A Brotherhood Against Totalitarian Enactments, also has campaigned against helmet laws.

Bish said that even though a bill to require motorcyclists to wear helmets has been introduced every year for the past two decades, bikers should be particularly concerned about its chances of passing this year.

“This is the furthest that a bill has ever gotten in California,” he said. “But most riders don’t even know about it yet.”

The latest motorcycle helmet bill was endorsed by the state Senate Transportation Committee on March 16 and is headed for the Senate floor, perhaps as early as this week.

At the time of the bill’s approval on a 7-3 vote, Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (D-Hawthorne) said he expected “to see it on the governor’s desk” this year. Floyd sponsored similar legislation in 1987 that failed to pass the Senate.

Bish said he wears a helmet occasionally, including when he travels through congested city traffic and when it’s rainy or cold. But he listed several reasons he said they should not be required, including:

A helmet can give a rider “a false sense of security,” he said, leading the rider to take more risks.

The heavy helmets actually can cause neck and back injuries in high-speed collisions, he said, by forcing the rider’s head to snap back. “Chin straps can get caught in things,” he said.

ABATE’s April newsletter featured a story about injured Ventura High School football player Jason Bennett, who has filed a claim against the school district alleging that the football helmet he used was faulty.

Law enforcement officers, paramedics and firefighters have long supported a helmet law.