EDITORIAL
Don't like helmets? Learn from Ching

Mopeds aren't as cute as they look. Just ask UH volleyball All-American Tony Ching, who suffered head and leg injuries, plus a punctured lung, after a car sideswiped his moped in Makiki.

Like many Hawai'i moped riders and motorcyclists who favor the bare-headed look, he wasn't wearing a helmet.

Nor was this the 22-year-old star athlete's first moped mishap. According to a report by Advertiser sports writer Stephen Tsai, Ching crashed into a guardrail on campus and injured an arm two years ago. Around that time, several UH football starters were having moped accidents, prompting head coach June Jones to ban players from riding mopeds during the season.

Why is it so hard to grasp that seat belts and helmets save lives, and that being alive and able-bodied is a lot more important than looking cool?

Ching finally gets it and is calling for a helmet law: "I know it might not be cool to wear helmets, but it is definitely not cool to be in the hospital, have stitches from ear-to-ear and plates in your head," he said last week at The Queen's Medical Center, where he was treated.

Hawai'i doesn't have a mandatory helmet law, but if bare-headed riders keep getting into accidents, we'll be happy to join the medical profession in lobbying for one.