Bikers are currently required to wear helmets

JEFFERSON CITY — The director of Missouri’s Department of Transportation says repealing the state’s helmet law “doesn’t make sense” and will cost lives.

MoDOT director Pete Rahn appeared at a capital city hospital with ER doctors today to urge Gov. Jay Nixon to veto a law passed by lawmakers earlier this month. The law would repeal Missouri’s 40-year-old requirement that motorcyclists where helmets on the state’s roads.

If the repeal is enacted, motorcyclists in the state would have the choice to where helmets anywhere in the state except for on the Interstate.

Rahn, who has also been pushing unsuccessfully for a primary seat belt law in the state, says he doesn’t understand why the Legislature would make a decision that he says will cost people their lives because of head injuries.

“I am extremely disappointed that the Legislature would … say we are willing to pay the price of 42 lives per year,” Rahn said.

At the news conference, Rahn produced a survey paid for by MoDOT with federal safety funds that shows 84 percent of Missourians are against repealing the state’s motorcycle helmet law.

Greg Folkert, an emergency room doctor from St. Louis, also appealed to Nixon to veto the new law. Folkert gave an emotional appeal, talking about losing his own father to a motorcycle accident when Folkert was 10 years old.

“I was a boy who becam a man dogged by never knowing who my father was,” said Folkert, a Washington University med student who finishes his residency in a couple of months. “Please Gov. Nixon, don’t repeal this law.”

Other than budget bills, the motorcycle helmet bill was one of the first pieces of legislation given final approval by the General Assembly. Nixon has not said what his opinion on the helmet repeal is.

Rahn said his staff has talked to Nixon about the survey, and he hopes to speak to the governor personally about the issue.

The bill is Senate Bill 202.