Helmet law getting a new look in next legislative session

Those who rejoiced in thinking the motorcycle helmet issue was over should steer clear of S.C. Sen. Ralph Anderson, D-Greenville.

He has proposed a bill to require riders of all ages to wear helmets while in South Carolina, where .

S1046 was pre-filed for the upcoming legislative session on Dec. 5, and referred to the Senate’s Transportation Committee the same day.

The point of pre-filing is to make sure the bill is taken up for discussion early in the session that begins Jan. 10.

There will be public hearings while the bill is in the subcommittee and again if it reaches the Senate floor, though none has been scheduled yet.

Grand Strand-area senators Yancey McGill, D-Kingstree, and Luke Rankin, R-Myrtle Beach, both of whom are on the Senate Transportation Committee, could not be reached Wednesday for comment.

Anderson won’t know whether his Senate colleagues support the bill until it goes to the floor for discussion, but he said he has already heard from some members of the public.

“I’ve heard from parents and friends of people who have been hurt or killed,” he said. “There are so many people dying”

He has also heard from riders who want to remain able to make their own choice.

“They say it’s unconstitutional, but if this is, then so is the seat belt law,” Anderson said.

It has been a year and a half since the S.C. Supreme Court ruled Myrtle Beach’s 2008 helmet law invalid because it was at odds with state law. That law requires only riders younger than 21 to wear helmets.

Myrtle Beach’s helmet law was part of a multilaw effort designed to push the May motorcycle rallies outside city limits. It was the most unpopular in a bundle of changes, which included a revamped noise ordinance, a rule against using the city’s name to promote unauthorized events and several other regulations. Surfside Beach didn’t enact a helmet rule but moved to curb the rallies’ impact by reducing the availability of permits for motorcycle-related vendors during May, as did Horry County.

The rallies, which were estimated to draw more than 300,000 during the Harley event in mid-May and Atlantic Beach Bikefest, always held over the Memorial Day weekend, were too big and too loud, the city said.

Although Myrtle Beach City Council members enacted their changes after a college student was shot and killed during an argument over a parking space during Bikefest -- though not by bikers -- city residents had been complaining for years.

The city tried to work with the rally organizers, but organizers were unwilling to compromise, both sides have acknowledged.

Several groups sued the city over the helmet law, and it went to the Supreme Court in February 2010. The high court didn’t issue its ruling until June of that year, allowing two rally seasons to come and go with the helmet law in place.

Combined with the efforts of Surfside and Horry County, and those of the bikers and rally supporters who had agreed to boycott the city did so, by the time the court ruled, the rallies, which still take place outside the city, had dwindled substantially.