May is motorcycle safety awareness month, and the month is used to remind all users of the road to be aware of motorcyclists. An additional aspect of the awareness month is to remind motorcycle riders to follow proper safety precautions in order to avoid motorcycle accidents and deaths. One safety precaution that all motorcycle riders should consider in Pennsylvania is a motorcycle helmet.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, only motorcyclists under the age of 21 are required to wear motorcycle helmets in Pennsylvania. Even though the majority of Pennsylvania motorcyclists do not have to wear helmets, motorcycle helmets save lives, and in 2008 the lives of over 1,800 motorcyclists across the country were saved because of helmet use.

It has been shown that riders who wear a motorcycle helmet have a 29 percent better chance of surviving an accident than riders who do not wear a helmet. Some motorcyclists believe motorcycle helmets interfere with the ability of a rider to see and hear. A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study has shown motorcycle helmets do not decrease vision or hearing and therefore do not increase the risk of a crash.

Proper motorcycle helmets in the United States must meet a minimum safety standard, and the minimum safety standard is called the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 218. Motorcycle helmets that do not meet the standard are deemed unsafe. There are multiple ways to identify a proper motorcycle helmet that meets the minimum safety standard.

The first way to judge a proper motorcycle helmet is to judge the physical characteristics of the helmet. A proper helmet will generally weigh about three pounds. In comparison, a novelty or unsafe helmet will only weigh one pound. Next time, we will finish our discussion of how to identify a safe motorcycle helmet.

Source: nhtsa.gov, "May is motorcycle safety awareness month," 5/16/11