Subject: Carolinas ramping up for helmet fight
   Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 13:55:44 -0500


   Some freedom fighters around the country suspect a revised effort by
   the feds and local governments to achieve helmet reinstatement laws
   in 2008. North Carolina is already in the middle of this
   controversy. Although North Carolina already has a mandatory helmet
   law, in effect since 1967, it boasts one of the country's worse
   safety records.

The legislature in an effort to avoid answering the
   question about helmet effectiveness instead passed new legislation
   requiring that helmets must meet the FMVSS 218 standard. Police in
   North Carolina interpret that as helmets must be DOT approved. Of
   course, there is no such thing in fact or law, but that hasn't
   stopped the increased enforcement practices, tickets and threats of
   confiscation of motorcycles by police there. The law doesn't go into
   effect until January, 2008, but police are already out conducting
   sweeps and road side stops. BOLT of the Carolinas and CBA/ABATE were
   able to convince the Senate Judiciary Committee to remove the helmet
   section from House Bill 563. The author of the helmet section, Rep.
   Sutton, was able to reintroduce that section into the bill through
   an amendment offered by Senator Ed Jones. The bill passed and was
   signed into law by Governor Easley on August 17, 2007.

   North Carolina now faces the same dilemma California has been
   fighting over the past dozen or so years. The constitutionality of a
   vague law. Even though Rep. Sutton assured the committee there would
   be a list of approved helmets, no list exists nor probably ever
   will. Neither does NHTSA or the DOT approve helmets. Yet, the police
   are acting as though they do and a list exists. This needs to be
   aggressively challenged in court. BOLT advises that each "not
   guilty" pleas will cost North Carolina over $800.00 to prosecute.
   That should be incentive for every true freedom fighter to go out
   and get ticketed today. A couple of interesting turns have taken
   place since this all hit the news in North Carolina. It seems the
   new director, Nicole Nason, has put the lid on anyone speaking to
   NHTSA subject matter experts. Any questions about policy concerning
   this issue have to be presented through political appointees now. So
   much for us calling NHTSA and getting them to speak directly to us,
   as we did many times in the past. I don't think they want us knowing
   too much about how they work. Also, part of the bill that passed in
   North Carolina contains a section that allows municipalities to
   selectively restrict citizens from protesting on public streets.
   Wow, what is going on here? Maybe those huge helmet rallies are
   effective and the government wants to restrict one of our most
   sacred rights, the right to object or seek redress.

   BOLT of the Carolinas has created the Biker Court, a  web site to
   inform people about helmet tickets and how to fight them. They also
   created T.I.T.S., the Ticket Information Tracking System, again a
   tool to educate people on how to fight helmet tickets.

   To learn more, visit http://boltcarolinas.org
   <http://boltcarolinas.org/> or http://bikercourt.com
   <http://bikercourt.com/>