“I wear a helmet—full face and chin—because I’m in North Carolina, about three miles from South Carolina. It’s not uncommon to drive down there, stop, pull over, take the helmet off and put it in a bag and tie it on the motorcycle. It’s my choice; South Carolina provides that opportunity.”

If passed, the bill would mandate helmets for riders under 21 years old and require riders to carry $10,000 of additional health insurance to cover the costs of potential brain-injury care. If a helmetless rider was found not to have the extra insurance, that rider could get a $25 ticket.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, motorcycles comprise less than 3 percent of registered vehicles in the U.S. and travel fewer than 1 percent of all highway miles.

But the same research found that motorcycle crashes make up 14 percent of all road traffic deaths and motorcyclists account for a higher percentage of people who suffer traumatic brain injuries.

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“In 1997, there were 2,100 motorcycle deaths in the U.S. and 42,000 deaths in automobiles,” said Tom Crosby from the AAA Carolinas Foundation for Traffic Safety.

"In 2012, there were 4,500 deaths on motorcycles and only 32,000 deaths in automobiles,” Crosby said. “And there are more cars on the road.”

He pointed to Florida, which repealed its helmet law in 2000: Hospital costs for head and brain-injured motorcyclists went from $21 million to more than $50 million over two years. And death rates for riders under 21 tripled.

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