The helmet is a fundamental safety device for motorcyclists, with no doubt about its added value. But in the United States of America there are those who want to ban the imposition of compulsory use.
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18/08/2026
by
The use of motorcycle helmets is mandatory in several countries, including Portugal. And in many of them, it is a safety benefit that is not in doubt. But it's not like that everywhere.
In the United States of America, a law proposal has recently been presented by Republican state representatives “to prohibit the District of Columbia [Washington DC] from requiring a person to wear a protective helmet to operate or drive a motorcycle or motorcycle“.
Call “Ride in Freedom Act“, the initiative was submitted to the House of Representatives and the Senate. If it gets approved, the bikers in Washington DC, where the U.S. federal capital is, they could choose to drive without any protection. For several decades the use of the helmet has been mandatory in most states in the United States of America, but after the federal authority on the matter was revoked today in 1976 there are some states that continue to give freedom of choice. Or others where the helmet is only mandatory for young people or for those who are starting to drive motorcycles, according to The Washington Post.
In a report by the U.S. National Road Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), data from 2023 show that in states without universal laws on helmet use, 51 percent of motorcyclists who lost their lives in accidents did not use the device. The percentage drops to only ten percent in states with law on wearing the helmet.