Quote Originally Posted by roadie gal View Post
As an ER doctor who lives and works in an area where we have a lot of road and mountain bikers my opinion (and only mine) is that riding without a helmet is just stupid and you should be REQUIRED to have health insurance and a WILL if you want to ride without one.
I'm not going to call anyone riding without a helmet stupid just as I would not call a chain smoker stupid for the same reason.

However; I am completely with you in regard to having a hefty health insurance for those riding without a helmet. Doesn't health companies and car insurance companies ask whether you smoke or not. And if you answer yes, by golly, your rate is much higher than non-smoker. Same should apply to those without helmet. Simply, the actuarial says that riding without a helmet significantly increases the cost of medical bill.

This, for reasons beyond me, is the same reasoning behind smoker and non-smoker when it comes to auto insurance. Hey, you smoke, pay up!! Again I have nothing against those who want to smoke, just stand 100 feet or more away from me.

Now about the will part. Sadly, those without helmet stand to lose their life more easily. So why put your loved ones through grief of going through probate, not to mention, the courts are busy handling probate. It's not something you would want to put your family through. BTW, everyone regardless of their live-on-the-edge life quotient, should have a will. Your family will thank you if you should come to an untimely end.

Slippery slope... hmm there was an incident about 20-30 years ago in Colorado with group of highly experienced nordic skiers with experience in winter camping. They set off on an "outing". They told their loved ones to expect them to be back before a severe winter storm blew in their way. Well they didn't. Colorado state sent out several teams of search and rescue teams. National Guard I think were called out with their helicopters and using IR camera to spot them... The group of experienced nordic skiers came out unscathed and wondered about what all the hoopla was about. The whole thing was national news so every one knew about it. Most of Colorado residents and rest of the country were going "Hey, the 'idiots' should pay back the state for the expense of search and rescue. If they were that experienced why have the state waste its resources and $$ when it could have been avoided"

The allure of "freedom" with the wind blowing in your face sounds "romantic" but its not for me.