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Published on Tuesday, June 22, 2004
in the Lakeland Ledger
AUBURNDALE -- A helmet might have saved the life of a Polk City man who died Sunday morning in a motorcycle accident, according to police.
"There's a chance that the outcome would have been different if he had been wearing a helmet," Auburndale Police Chief Dean Longo said. "His chances would have certainly improved."
Robert Williamson, 53, died after losing control of his Harley-Davidson while riding west on Gapway Road. Longo said police think Williamson may have leaned over too far and lost control as he tried to make a turn on Gapway Road. He slid into the path of an oncoming Ford Expedition.
Longo said there have been two fatal motorcycle crashes in Auburndale so far this year. In both cases, the riders were not wearing helmets.
In 2002, the most recent year for which statistics are available, nearly twice as many motorcycle riders and passengers who were not wearing helmets were killed statewide as their counterparts who were wearing helmets.
Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Larry Coggins said 197 people without helmets were killed across the state while 107 people who were wearing protective headgear died in motorcycle accidents.
In Polk County, six people were killed in motorcycle crashes in 2002, up from five in 2001 but down from nine in 2000, according to the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. The Polk County data did not say how many were wearing helmets.
"Wearing a helmet doesn't mean that it's 100 percent you're going to be safe," Coggins said. "But your chances are a whole lot better."
Ironically, Coggins said, older, more experienced and just plain safer riders are most often the ones who choose not to wear a helmet.
"The majority of younger riders, the ones that ride sportbikes, go fast and weave in and out of traffic, wear them," Coggins said. "They think because they have their $1,000 leather protective suit and their expensive helmet that they're safe when they're going 100 miles an hour."
The reason many younger people wear the headgear, Coggins said, is because Florida law allows riders to pass on wearing a helmet only if they can prove that they have at least $10,000 worth of health insurance. Many young riders cannot afford the insurance, he said.
"If they have a crash and they have to be transported to the trauma center by helicopter, there goes their $10,000 in insurance right there."