Roethlisberger Fined for Motorcycling Without a License
Last week, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger crashes his motorcycle when a driver made an illegal turn in front of him. Today, they were both fined. It seems that Big Ben didn’t have a license to operate a motorcycle.
Also of note: “Only licensed motorcyclists can ride without a helmet in Pennsylvania.” Ponder that one for a minute.
As opposed to probationary motorcycle riders, who are required to wear helmets.
LCB: That would make more sense. Otherwise, it’s like saying unlicensed drivers are required to wear seat belts. Um, they’re not supposed to be driving to begin with.
LCB stole the thunder, here.
That would be in line with other states with helmet-less laws, as I understand it.
Every coin having two sides, it’s intersting that there’s not much talk about the driver that made the ILLEGAL left turn in front of him.
I almost lost my right foot to a such a maneuver. It is a fairly common, ticketable offense that ends very badly for the motorcycle coming the other way.
I always wear a helmet when I ride, but I dunno. You would think the focus might be on the one who actually CAUSED the accident.
Lets get the facts straight.
Ben had a drivers license.
He lacked a ‘motorcycle endorsement’.
The lack of the endorsement automatically requires that he wear a helmet.
Hat: Ordinarily, lacking a required endorsement is tantamount to lacking a license. I don’t have a CDL endorement on my DL. If I were tooling around behind the wheel of a semi and got into an accident, the cops would be similarly unamused.
Oddly, I recall Alabama allowing 15-year-olds to get motorcycle licenses whereas one had to wait to 16 to get a license to drive a car. That seems very odd in hindsight.
I just looked it up to see if things had changed since I was worried about since things (1982). They haven’t. Indeed, Alabama apparently will issue a motor driven cycle license to 14-year-olds [PDF].
How about the possibility that this oddly worded law is more directed towards passengers? In other words, anybody can ride a motorcycle (as opposed to driving one), but the law only allows those who are so licensed to not wear a helmet. If you’re an unlicensed passenger riding pillion (or maybe even in a sidecar), you have to wear a helmet.
I mean, really, there are many laws in this country which are much weirder than that interpretation.