Much Ado About Helmets

I've lived in semi-rural, semi-urban Dumaguete City for nearly most of my life. Part of the joys I take advantage of when I'm home is riding my motorcycle because, as much as a car offers shade from the midday sun or the occasional sudden downpour and you don't have to worry about getting an insect in your eye, nothing beats the wind in my hair and exhilaration of zipping along the city streets on a two-wheeled motorbike.

Yup, no helmets here.

From memory, I know some law-enforcing agencies have tried to implement the helmet rule years back but seemingly, Dumaguete is above that rule. Local officials even went as far as declaring that helmets are only needed for out-of-the-city trips.

Give or take a year before, Silliman University instituted a helmet rule in the campus -- meaning you'd have to be wearing a helmet if you were to drive a motorcycle inside the campus. It was funny because, being in a city where motorcycles are a main mode of transportation, students would hang helmets from elbows, handlebars, or keep it in their bags until they had to use it to get into Silliman.

Just a few weeks ago, officials from the DOTC and LTO launched an operation in the city to catch people on motorcycles not wearing helmets. Now, elected city officials have filed a complaint regarding the matter and that what they did is not constitutional.

OK, settle down for just a minute.

Helmets? Oh the joys of living in Dumaguete. Yep, Wall Street is crashing, terrorist attacks, economic turmoil, all that doesn't matter to us here.

I'd be the first to say that I hate wearing helmets when I'm driving. It takes away part of the fun I get when I drive (remember wind in my hair...). But I've also become a doctor and I've seen my share of deaths in the emergency room and seen more than a couple of lives saved by using some head-protective gear. Just because it's inconvenient to put on a helmet and drive a motorcycle a couple of blocks from Silliman to Lee Plaza, it does not mean that the risk that a 10-wheeler cargo truck could hit you while you cross any of the 3 intersections in between, is taken away. Sure that scenario could be a bit overkill and the helmet wouldn't protect you anyway, but I'll see you the next time in the ER when you would be regretting why you did not wear one when CT scans show a skull fractures or subdural hematomas.

Honestly, I probably will not wear a helmet while I drive around my city in my motorcycle. But I'm saying we should.

If that time comes, I'll be using the car.