Lower fees proposed to spur use of helmets

By Sarah Zoellick

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Feb 08, 2013

~~<p>State lawmakers have steered a new course in dealing with a perennial issue of requiring motorcycle and motor scooter riders to wear helmets. This year bills would encourage but not mandate helmet use by offering lower motor vehicle registration rates to riders who choose to wear them.</p>
<p>Senate Bill 484 and other measures come less than two weeks after a 17-year-old Kalihi boy who was not wearing a helmet was killed in a late-night mo-ped accident and a 45-year-old Captain Cook man, also not wearing a helmet, died after rear-ending a truck in South Kona. Police said alcohol and speeding may have been factors in the second crash.</p>
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State lawmakers have steered a new course in dealing with a perennial issue of requiring motorcycle and motor scooter riders to wear helmets. This year bills would encourage but not mandate helmet use by offering lower motor vehicle registration rates to riders who choose to wear them.

Senate Bill 484 and other measures come less than two weeks after a 17-year-old Kalihi boy who was not wearing a helmet was killed in a late-night mo-ped accident and a 45-year-old Captain Cook man, also not wearing a helmet, died after rear-ending a truck in South Kona. Police said alcohol and speeding may have been factors in the second crash. Login for more...