Yesterday, a good friend of mine was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Gone, in a flash.

I talked to him less than 5 days ago, and now he's gone forever.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about. Not quite, anyway. A major factor in his death - or at least a major factor reported - was that he wasn't wearing a helmet. Sure, he might have been speeding, but the lack of a helmet is probably what did him in.

Now, where I'm from, there are no helmet laws for motorcyclists. If I'm not mistaken, there was a law at some point, but motorcyclists got all offended that they had no right to ride bare-headed, and it was repealed. You see tons of unhelmeted motorcyclists on the roads everyday, usually wearing American flag handkerchiefs instead.

It seems to me that they're of the opinion that because they're good drivers, they have nothing to worry about.

I'm worried about the other people on the road. Like in my friend's case - he hit a car, not because he ran a stop light or anything, but because the car couldn't see him and just... pulled out.

I don't know if he would have been saved had he been wearing a helmet. Maybe not. But maybe so. Regardless, the point of this post is to ask two very important questions --

Does your area/country have helmet laws?
Are you for or against helmet laws, and why?