It’s become an annual Memorial Day tradition: the motorcycle run to remember Donald Pittsley, Montville, also known as “Pappy,” for his fight to give motorcyclists, at least adults in Connecticut, the “freedom to choose” to wear a helmet.
Close to 3,000 motorcycle riders made the 2008 homage down Depot Road to Comstock Cemetery, where Pittsley is buried. Now in its 33rd year, the name change to Memorial Run from Pappy’s Run didn’t alter the event’s significance, according to organizer Erv Doubleday of Norwich, who has been involved in the past three year’s rides. He works at the Sprague Road & Gun Club, where the riders met.
Pappy is credited as one of the driving forces that made it possible for Connecticut and other states to repeal universal mandatory helmet laws by decoupling U.S. Department of Transportation funds to states from the state helmet laws. Pappy died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1975, shortly before the Connecticut state law that required all riders to wear helmets was repealed.
The current Connecticut statute requires riders under the age of 18 to wear a helmet. There have been legislative efforts to reinstate the mandatory helmet law for adults in 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1991, 1993, 1995, 2003 and 2005, according to www.pappysrun.com.
Twenty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico require helmets for all riders, regardless of age, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey require helmets by all riders. Another 27 states required the use of a helmet for a specific segment of riders, usually under age 18. Colorado, Illinois and Iowa do not require helmets, according to a February 2007 NHTSA fact sheet.
Citing head injury as a leading cause of death in motorcycle crashes, NHTSA’s position is that motorcycle helmets provide the best protection from head injuries for motorcyclists involved in traffic crashes. It encourages states to have and enforce laws that require all motorcycle operators and passengers to wear helmets.
Repeal of state universal helmet use laws has resulted in fewer riders wearing helmets.
As of 2005, barely half of U.S. motorcycle riders wore helmets, dropping from 71 to 48 percent, according to the National Occupant Protection Use Survey.
Doubleday said the increased numbers of riders in the three years that he has been involved as a direct reflection of the riders’ interest in supporting existing helmet status in Connecticut. Last year’s ride drew about 2,000 riders, he said.
“You can see by the amount of people who come that they like to have a choice, that they don’t want to be told that they have to have a helmet,” he said. “There was a big variety in riders, including women and teenage riders. It was great.”
The Memorial Run was accident-free, Doubleday pointed out, noting that most of the riders came from Connecticut and surrounding states. Organizers held fundraisers earlier in the year to pay for the police escort on side streets and to the Comstock Cemetery. The Baltic Fire Department also donated its time, he said.
David Hutchins, co-chairman of the Connecticut Motorcycle Riders Association (CMRA) spoke at Pittsley’s grave on Sunday. CMRA is a grass-roots advocacy group that acts to protect and advance the interests of motorcyclists in the political process. Its agenda includes improving motorcycle safety through education, motorist awareness and the defeat or repeal of all motorcycle related legislation that it considers unjustifiably restrictive. It also aims to improve the public's perception of motorcycling.
For more information, see www.pappysrun.com, www.thecmra.com and www.nhtsa.gov.