This is not the first time we have discussed the topic (and possibly it will not be the last), about the relationship between not wearing a helmet on a motorcycle and the possible consequences in the event of an accident. However, despite the various reports issued by different entities confirming this fact, it seems to continue to be an unimportant issue for a large part of the Yankee fans.
Millions of dollars spent by not wearing a motorcycle helmet
This is the harsh and difficult reality that trauma centers face, in charge of caring for motorcycle accident victims who have suffered injuries of various degrees as a result of not wearing a helmet. This is stated in the latest report published by the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS)which we have learned about in a recent article published by Ride Apart.
An almost surreal situation, given the repeal of the obligation to wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle by the state of Michigan, 14 years ago. Since then the numbers of deaths and injuries in motorcycle accidents have not stopped growing. As detailed in the study itself:
“The repeal of Michigan’s mandatory motorcycle helmet law was associated with a $5,785 increase in hospitalization costs per injured patient, representing a 26% increase and $4.5 million in additional annual expenses.”. Furthermore, these costs usually have a multiple collateral effect:
On the one hand, the amounts necessary to cover the cost usually “fall on taxpayers and public insurance programs.” Likewise, trauma centers that absorb unreimbursed care face financial instability. However, far from seeing the light at the end of the black tunnel of foolishness, things seem to get worse in the future, “given that 33 states have already repealed mandatory helmet laws”… seeing is believing.
Patrick L. JohnsonMD, MPH, lead author of the study and a surgery resident at the University of Michigan, says: “When people argue that helmet choice is solely a matter of personal freedom, they overlook who ultimately pays for treatment. A significant portion of these costs falls on public health systems, taxpayers, and trauma care systems – meaning we all share the financial burden.”
At times it seems that we are nothing more than part of the decoration of “Idiocracy”the film directed by Mike Judge, which exposes a dystopian world where idiots have been favored by natural selection. The plot set in a distant year 2505 could be a premonition of what awaits the inhabitants of the planet at that time. The problem is that its author missed the date on which the fiction could become a reality…
