STATE : Veto Expected as Assembly Passes Bill Requiring Motorcyclist Helmets
SACRAMENTO — A bill that would require motorcyclists to wear helmets passed the Assembly today and was sent to an almost certain veto by Gov. George Deukmejian.
After final passage of the bill on a 41-20 vote, Assemblyman Richard E. Floyd (D-Carson), author of the bill, said he was finished with the issue after nine years of working on it and would let another legislator carry it next year.
“The extreme conservatives in the Legislature, the movie people and the Hell’s Angels seem to be quite a combination,” a frustrated Floyd said of the factions that mobilized against it over the years.
In his veto message last year, Deukmejian said he believed that mature riders should be free to choose for themselves whether to wear a helmet, although he favored a law requiring motorcyclists under 21 to wear helmets. He reiterated that position at a news conference Wednesday.
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