State v. Albertson
| Decision Date | 18 May 1970 |
| Docket Number | No. 10520,10520 |
| Citation | 470 P.2d 300,93 Idaho 640 |
| Parties | STATE of Idaho, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Gerald W. ALBERTSON, Defendant-Respondent. |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
Robert M. Robson, Atty, Gen., Martin R. Ward, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Ellison M. Matthews, Pros. Atty., Ada County, Boise, for appellant.
E. Don Copple, Boise, for respondent.
This cause presents for decision the constitutionality of our Idaho statute requiring motorcycle riders to wear a helmet while operating a motorcycle upon a public street or highway. Defendant (respondent here) was charged with and convicted in the Justice Court of Ada County of operating a motorcycle without a safety helmet contrary to the provisions of I.C. § 49-761A. Defendant appealed the conviction to the District Court of the Fourth Judicial District, in and for Ada County. Defendant stipulated both in the Justice Court and in the District Court that he had willfully and intentionally operated a motorcycle upon a public road, on a date certain, while not wearing a protective safety helmet. It was further stipulated in the District Court that the case might be decided by the court on the stipulated facts, waiving any trial. Hence, the only question presented to the district court was the alleged unconstitutionality of I.C. § 49-761A. The district court entered its memorandum decision finding the statute in question unconstitutional 'as a violation of substantive due process' and entered an order dismissing the action. This appeal was taken by the State of Idaho. Appeals by the State in criminal cases are governed by I.C. § 19-2804. The respondent herein does not raise the issue of the ability of the State to maintain an appeal. We were favored by no authority, discussion or argument on this point by either party. We therefore treat this particular case as being in effect an appeal by the State from a judgment for a criminal defendant on a demurrer to an information. I.C. § 19-2804.
Obviously, the only question presented in this appeal is the constitutionality of I.C. § 49-761A. Appellant, of course, contends that the district court erred in finding the said statute unconstitutional and suggests that the statute is a valid exercise of the State's police power because it bears a reasonable relationship to the health, welfare or safety of the general public.
Respondent attacks the statute on a number of grounds: first, that the statute denies defendant equal protection of law as proscribed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; secondly, that the statute is unconstitutional as a violation of substantive due process in that it is an attempted regulation of conduct of individual persons which bears no reasonable relationship to the public at large, and also that the regulation of the department of law enforcement is vague and indefinite; thirdly, respondent argues that the statute is an infringement of fundamental liberty, of his privacy and right to be let alone, as guaranteed by the Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
During the last decade the motorcycle has come to be widely accepted not only as a means of transportation, but as outdoor recreation. During the same years the mounting death toll on the nation's highways has become a cause of concern to the federal government as well as state governments. The sharp increase in ownership and use of motorcycles, coupled with the vulnerability of motorcycle riders, has resulted in particular attention being paid to the motorcycle rider not only by state legislatures, but by the United States Congress. At the present time a great majority of the states have enacted legislation requiring the wearing of a helmet while operating a motorcycle. Such legislation presumably resulted from the enactment of the Highway Safety Act of 1966, 23 U.S.c.A. §§ 401-404 (Supp.1967), which encouraged and almost demanded enactment of protective helmet legislation by the states. 73 Dickinson L.Rev. 100; 30 University of Pittsburgh L.Rev. 421; 30 Ohio State Law Journal 355.
1
Statistics accumulated by the department of motor vehicles of New York indicate that 89.2 per cent of motorcycle accidents result in injury or death, that almost all fatalities occurring as a result of such accidents involve head injuries, and that most of such fatalities could have been avoided or the severity of a given accident lessened by the use of a proper helmet. 2
Data accumulated by the Michigan state police shows a mortality rate of 11.5 for every 10,000 registrations of motorcycles as compared with 5.2 per 10,000 for all other vehicles in the same period. 3
There can be little doubt but that the operation of a motorcycle upon the public highways presents certain dangers and is particularly dangerous as compared with the operation of other types of motor vehicles. In none of the many cases which have dealt with this subject is there any real contention that the wearing of a helmet while operating a motorcycle is not a wise, expedient and salutary course of conduct. In the case at bar respondent, in effect, admits that the dangers of operating a motorcycle are considerably enhanced absent a protective helmet.
We are therefore required to reject respondent's contention that motorcycle operators are being discriminated against as compared with operators of other motor vehicles without a rational basis therefor. We think that the obvious dangers presented...
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...(Del.1972) 290 A.2d 322; Hamm v. State (Fla.1980) 387 So.2d 946; State v. Cotton (1973) 55 Haw. 138, 516 P.2d 709; State v. Albertson (1970) 93 Idaho 640, 470 P.2d 300; City of Wichita v. White (1970) 205 Kan. 408, 469 P.2d 287; Commonwealth v. Coffman (Ky.1970) 453 S.W.2d 759; Everhardt v.......
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