Wear a helmet, save a life. Don't wear one, and you may save up to eight — none of them your own.
Gruesome, yes, but motorcycles are dubbed "donorcycles" for a reason, some say.
One study found that states like Florida that repealed mandatory helmet laws saw not just a corresponding spike in fatalities, but a healthy bump in organ donations from people who died in traffic accidents, especially among adult males, who represent the majority of motorcycle fatalities.
The documented risk of dying from a serious head wound while riding without a helmet is so high, bare-headed motorcyclists are considered ideal organ donors: They're typically young, otherwise healthy and at high risk of brain death from sudden trauma.
"We're never willing to weigh the tradeoff between people who die riding a motorcycle and people who need an organ transplant," said one of the study's lead authors, Stacy dikkert-Conlin, an associate economics professor at Michigan State University. "But the reality is that people who may never ride a bike might benefit" from motorcyclists who decide to go bare.
In the years following its repeal in 2000, the Sunshine State saw its organ donations among fatal vehicle accident victims mushroom by almost a third: from 99 in 1999 to 127 in 2002, after holding steady for four years, according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services statistics. Although the numbers don't extrapolate for motorcycle deaths in particular, men between the ages of 18 and 49 — a population most likely to die on a motorcycle — accounted for 89 percent of that growth.
"It stands to reason that if you do not wear a helmet, it is far more likely that you will suffer a serious or catastrophic brain injury that would make you a candidate for organ donation," said Brian Carpenter, an avid rider and helmet-use supporter who runs Systems Design & Support Inc. in
Delray Beach. "I think [being an organ donor] is a great idea and would be honored to allow someone else to live or have a better quality of life when I am done using my organs."
