Progress is being made on the roads, with motorcycle fatalities in Wisconsin dropping from a year ago. Greg Patzer, the Motorcycle Safety Manager at the DOT, says agency reports show deaths from motorcycle crashes are down about 20-percent so far in 2011, with 73 fatalities.
Patzer says many of those deaths could have been prevented if more motorcyclists wore helmets. The DOT says 73-percent of the riders killed this year were not wearing helmets.
Patzer says there continues to be a culture among bikers that they should have the “freedom” to decide whether or not to wear a helmet.
Wisconsin had a mandatory helmet law for a brief period in the 1970s. It was repealed after thousands of cyclists converged on Madison for several rallies.
