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Police say a motorcyclist participating in a protest ride against helmet laws in upstate New York died after he flipped over the bike's handlebars and hit his head on the pavement.

The accident happened Saturday afternoon in the town of Onondaga, in central New York near Syracuse.

State troopers tell The Post-Standard of Syracuse that 55-year-old Philip A. Contos of Parish, N.Y., was driving a 1983 Harley Davidson with a group of bikers who were protesting helmet laws by not wearing helmets.

Troopers say Contos hit his brakes and the motorcycle fishtailed. The bike spun out of control, and Contos toppled over the handlebars. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Troopers say Contos would have likely survived if he had been wearing a helmet.

Ironic. Sad, but ironic.

Well if this predictable irony saves even one life by convincing another motorcyclist the sheer folly of riding without a helmet, it was not in total vain. RIP fellow motorcyclist.

Sho, I am probably heading for another infarction here, but I cannot fail to see the irony for this.

GOD has a sense of humor and when this poor soul gets the pearly gates HE will be waiting saying,

"see stupid, did you think I put all that effort into people who make helmets for nothing"

Ironically the dead rider probably ended up making a very strong reverse argument of what he intended to do. I bet he convinced a lot of riders about the unfathomable stupidity of riding without a helmet.

He fought the law and the law won. Not the NY State's Helmet Law but Newton's Law of Gravity et al...

RIP.

sapaul wrote:Sho, I am probably heading for another infarction here, but I cannot fail to see the irony for this.

GOD has a sense of humor and when this poor soul gets the pearly gates HE will be waiting saying,

"see stupid, did you think I put all that effort into people who make helmets for nothing"

+1

Aherm, it was a guy who basically didn't know the difference between being against helmet use and being against the government mandating that use (and well, officially at least, ABATE encourages helmet use while being against regulation).

I'm sad for his family and loved ones, but y'know, Darwin's a b!tch.

Grey Thumper wrote: I'm sad for his family and loved ones, but y'know, Darwin's a b!tch.

Darwin called it but Newton got him.

A number of years ago I participated in a huge rally at the state capital in Wisconsin to show opposition to a proposal to mandate helmet use in that state. I was one of the very, very few riders in the protest wearing a helmet, and I received a lot of nasty comments from helmetless riders about it. They couldn't understand that I was not against wearing a helmet, just against the government mandating that I do so. I believe folks have the right to make their own choices, even if I feel that someone else's choice is dumb. Around that same time a fellow MSF instructor that I had worked with occasionally, and who certainly knew better, had a minor spill on his bike without a helmet and suffered significant brain damage. He was never able to ride, or do many other things, again. I don't think there is a conflict between wanting freedom and wanting to be safe.

Vito, thanks for the post, it is refreshing to see another good head on the shoulders around here.

That being said, I don't mind having the government mandating helmets. After all, if someone chooses not to wear a helmet and then has an accident it's our tax dollars that pay for his health care after the fact... (Canada & UK) In that way, I don't think people should have the choice because their choice does impact other people.