Are youth-only motorcycle helmet laws better than none at all?

Background: The trend in state motorcycle helmet laws has been a reduction from universal coverage requiring all riders to wear helmets, to partial coverage requiring only younger riders to wear helmets. In the current study we evaluate whether partial helmet laws reduce motorcycle fatalities and increase helmet compliance among young riders.

Methods: We compared a decade of motorcycle fatalities from the only 3 states with no helmet laws (New Hampshire, Iowa, Illinois) to 3 states with

Results: Overall, there was no significant difference in the average fatality rate per 10,000 motorcycle registrations for

Conclusions: Partial helmet laws neither significantly reduce fatality rates nor increase helmet compliance rates among young riders. A partial helmet law is roughly equivalent to none at all; only universal helmet laws have been shown to effectively protect young motorcyclists.