ILLINOIS WINS CYCLE HELMET TIFF

WASHINGTON -- Glenn Poshard used to ride a motorcycle when he taught high school history and government more than two decades ago in the Southern Illinois coal towns of Galatia and Thompsonville.

A helmet was not always part of the ride.

"I couldn't hear a darn thing when I had a motorcycle helmet on, and my peripheral vision ... was always bothered," said Poshard, now a Democratic congressman from Marion.

Although he said helmets provide protection in crashes, he believes they have safety drawbacks, too. But if there is a move to require helmets, Poshard said, it should come from Springfield, not Washington.

So when the federal government told states to pass a mandatory helmet law or forfeit a percentage of their federal road-building money, Poshard got angry. Last week, though, President Clinton signed legislation eliminating the penalty.

Illinois is one of 25 states that did not adopt an acceptable helmet law by Oct. 1, 1993. The Transportation Department subsequently ordered that 1 percent of these states' annual federal highway construction money instead go to highway safety programs. In the 1995 budget year, that affected $6.1 million for Illinois and was due to affect $12.2 million this year, when the penalty doubled.

Despite the penalty's elimination, the Illinois Transportation Department still believes "it would be in the best interest of the motorcyclists that ride in Illinois if they wore helmets," said Rick Meyers, chief of the accident information section.

But the agency can use the money. Budget cuts are expected to trim perhaps $30 million from the state's $677 million share of federal road-building money, according to estimates from the state and Congress.

The helmet provision is in legislation that would eliminate federal speed limits and designate a national system of highways for priority funding.

Removing the safety provisions drew opposition from safety advocates. But the measure had overwhelmingly passed Congress, and Clinton did not want to hold up $6 billion in highway funding.

Poshard and other lawmakers believe the issue is a state decision.

"If that's the judgment of my state, I'm not going to sit here and let them get penalized," he said. "That goes beyond the purview of what I think the federal government should do."

Todd Vandermyde of Downers Grove, legislative coordinator for the motorcycle group Illinois ABATE (A Brotherhood Aimed Toward Education), said the bill frees the states from Washington's "heavy-handed tactics of blackmail."

The Motorcycle Riders Foundation in Washington said Poshard and other Illinois lawmakers on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee -- Republican Reps. Jerry Weller of Morris, Tom Ewing of Pontiac, Ray LaHood of Peoria, and Democrats William Lipinski of Chicago and Jerry Costello of Belleville -- were instrumental in pushing the legislation.

Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., also worked to kill the penalty. But her Democratic colleague, Sen. Paul Simon, favored the requirement.

"It will save lives -- just that simple," Simon said.

Illinois was third among the states with 148 motorcyclist fatalities in 1994 but 17th with 7.4 motorcyclist fatalities per 10,000 registered vehicles, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The agency estimates helmets saved the lives of 527 motorcyclists in 1994 and could have saved 294 lives if all motorcyclists had worn helmets.

Of the 262 people killed in motorcycle crashes in Illinois in 1993 and 1994, 180 did not use helmets, the state Transportation Department reported. The agency said 32 accident victims wore helmets, while helmet use was unknown in 50 fatalities.