Why you should wear an LTO-approved helmet

There’s been a lot of noise about the new helmet regulations issued by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) mostly from people who do not understand the issue and this includes many radio commentators who side with those motorcyclists who hate to wear a proper helmet. To get the complete story, I have invited LTO Regional Director Raul Aquilos and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Regional Director Aster Caberte on my TV show, Straight from the Sky in order to clear up many issues and concerns expressed by the motoring public. It will be shown next Monday.

When I’m done with the interview, I will feature this in my next few columns. Meantime, let me point out that many of my readers know that I am a motorcycle enthusiast. I’ve been secretly borrowing my cousin’s motorcycle since 1971 and I finally bought my first motorcycle (a Honda XL 100) from Jesus Uy Enterprises in 1973. I can’t believe it myself, but I’ve been on two wheels for 40-plus years already. Back then, you ride your motorcycle at your own risk, sans a helmet. If you hurt yourself, it’s your fault.

Hmmm, I just remembered how old I am already… when the streets of Cebu City hardly had any traffic at all. My biker friends from the Swapang Motorcycle Club would stay at the Fuente Osmeña almost every night. When traffic disappears by midnight, we’d race our small bikes around the Fuente Osmeña circle. Those days are gone now… even in the wee hours … there is always traffic in Fuente.

Early in my motorcycle career, I was one of those who introduced the Hare and Hound Scrambles in what is now the Grand Majestic Restaurant because of the rugged terrain. We eventually graduated to motocross which is now one of the greatest motorcycling sports in the world today. It was then that we came up with a rule on the use of helmets otherwise you were not allowed to join any motocross races.

Of course our racing bikes doubled as our transportation so you can say that we were the first to use a helmet on our city streets. Back then we used only a helmet that was made in the US or Italy that had a Department of Transportation mark. Now what did that really mean? It really didn’t matter to us. Of course, after reading some motorcycle magazines or materials about helmets, it was then that I understood those markings on our helmets and more importantly that helmets save lives!

During one of our motorcycle trips to Kalibo (no one had discovered Boracay yet) for the Ati-Atihan Festival, one motocross rider who was wearing an open face Bell Helmet hit a rock on the road and crashed. We brought him to the hospital nearby and later found out that his injuries were a broken nose and two sets of teeth had to be pulled out. It was then that I decided that it was safer to use a full-face helmet because an open-face helmet does not give you full protection.

Since then, I never could ride my bike without a helmet. Call it my own kind of discipline, despite its being so hot and uncomfortable. But let me tell you that it is far better than getting killed when you drop your bike. Worse than getting killed on a bike accident is when you get a cracked skull and become an invalid for the rest of your life. So ask yourself would you like to be a burden to your family because you refuse to wear a helmet, or if you wore one, you wore a helmet that cannot pass LTO standards?

Many radio commentators (who probably ride motorcycles themselves) insist that the LTO’s helmet law should only be implemented in the provinces and not in the cities because of the slow speed of traffic. This is a myth. This is where it is important for the LTO or perhaps the Health Department to come up with the statistics on motorcycle accidents so show to the people that accidents happen anywhere and let me say it here, even wearing an approved helmet is no guarantee to save your skull when you crash your bike into a truck or a wall.

If you think that LTO approved helmets are expensive, why not try asking how much a brain operation costs these days. I really don’t know how much it is now, but 30 years ago, when my fellow Rotary Club member Dr. Ben Aldana, the only Neurosurgeon in Cebu or in Region 7 for that matter, would leave for a two-week vacation to the US, I’d tell my biker friends to wear their helmets because if they met an accident, there was no other doctor in Cebu who could operate on your skull.

Thankfully we now have other doctors like Dr. Wyben Briones who can do brain surgery. But still, it would cost as much as your small bike! Perhaps the bigger problem with most motorists is attitude as they only wear a helmet for compliance to the law. I implore them to wear the proper and approved safety helmet for the life they are saving is their own.

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