St. Petersburg Motorcycle Helmets
A person is required by St. Petersburg law to wear a motorcycle helmet unless he or she is 21 years of age or older and has, at least, a $10,000 medical insurance policy to operate the motorcycle without a helmet.
A person can be ticketed or fined for not wearing a helmet in St. Petersburg. However, if he or she meets the age and insurance requirements to forgo the helmet, he or she will avoid being ticketed. For this reason, law enforcement officers generally will not stop motorcycle riders unless it is obvious that that motorcyclist is not 21 years of age, driving without a helmet.
The low-power motorcycle does not require the same helmet as a street motorcycle, but it still could be argued that it was unsafe for a person not wear a helmet on a low-impact or a low-power cycle if an accident occurs. Therefore the safest route, both for preventing injuries and avoiding hurting your injury claim is to always wear a helmet.
Protection of a Helmet
Helmets protect the most important part of a person’s body, their head. On a motorcycle, people do not have the same protection as they would if they were in a car. When a person is in an accident and a car is wrapped around them, the helmet will protect their head from any impact. A helmet can help mitigate the injuries sustained should the individual hit the ground, the vehicle, or anything else that a person may impact in a motorcycle accident. Studies show that there is are exponential benefits to wearing motorcycle helmets. The St. Petersburg motorcycle helmet laws are in place to protect people from themselves, but the safety benefits of wearing helmets are huge.
Helmet’s Impact in a Civil Suit
Under a contributory negligence standard, failing to wear a helmet as a motorcyclist can increase the fault attributable to the motorcyclist, following an accident in St. Petersburg. The defendant may say that a person’s injuries may not have been as severe if he or she was acting as a reasonable person would by wearing a helmet. In these cases, it is usually successfully argued that a reasonable person would be wearing a helmet when operating a motorcycle.
Contributory negligence means that the injured victim contributed to their injuries. Even if a person is driving safely on a motorcycle, the defense could argue that not wearing a helmet contributed to his or her injuries. Therefore, the amount that a person can collect will be diminished by the unsafe choice not to wear a helmet.