Last summer, Terry Malpass from Kinston, NC was riding between his workplace and his home, when Kinston Police Officer CP Ellis pulled him over and wrote him a ticket for wearing a helmet that Ellis disapproved of. Terry had worn this same helmet for years, without any interference by law enforcement officers (LEO) in the past. In fact, he’s ridden in police escorted charity rides. So, when Terry looked into helmet laws and helmet ticketing, he found out that NC LEO is going to be ramping up enforcement efforts, even before they enact the new helmet statutes that go into effect on January 1, 2008. He also found that there were people saying helmet tickets should be fought. The ticket was for $100. His choices were to just pay the ticket, or for the good of bikers, and possibly to save himself $100 and stop being pulled over in hte future, he could fight the ticket in court. Terry made the right decision. He went to Biker Court which was created by BOLT of NC and has a Ticket Information Tracking System (T.I.T.S.). The more he looked into helmet laws, the more he understood that the statute is entirely vague and unconstitutional. He found good information to put together a terrific brief, fought the helmet ticket, and won! The testimony against him was kinda weird, because the officer said that what he did in order to test the helmet was try to bend the helmet. (We have no idea where the LEO came up with that. It is not in any standards we’ve ever seen). LEO have been using such approval/disapproval methods because there is no real test that they can do on the side of the road to find out what helmets are compliant and what are not, so it really is not their fault. They are stuck with trying to enforce a vague law. In January, 2008 when the new helmet statute which embeds FMVSS 218 as the standard of reference goes into effect, it will still be vague. The Governors office does not know what an FMVSS 218 is. The legislator who introduced the law didn’t know, and when we last checked with him, he still doesn’t know how to tell people who to comply with certainty. If an average person cannot read a law and determine how to comply with certainty, the law is an unjust law. It is vague and unconstitutional, lacking due process. KUDOS TO TERRY MALPASS!FIGHT THOSE HELMET TICKETS! | 
