Editorial: Supporters of the proposed law that would require bicyclists to wear helmets are seriously misguided. The number of pedestrians who die yearly as a result of accidents involving automobiles is five times the number of deaths resulting from bicycle accidents, and drunken driving exacts a much higher toll than both combined. Yet there are no calls for a ban on alcohol or walking down the street.
The statement 'It is foolish to require lab workers to wear safety goggles when working with acids and other dangerous liquids. No one suggests that people stop eating or socializing, even though more people become ill due to food poisoning and contagious diseases than are injured in laboratory accidents' exhibits a pattern of flawed reasoning most similar to that in the argument above.