By ROBIN BROWN
The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal

When David Breakiron Sr. gets on his 1995 Harley-Davidson Road King, his helmet is strapped to his bike rather than under his head.

"I'll only wear one when I have to," said Breakiron, of Glasgow, Del., who said he has ridden since 1970 without injury and logged about 49,000 miles in the last eight years.

His philosophy is shared by many motorcyclists, whose preference for going bare-headed has become a key part of a growing debate about motorcycle safety, prompted by a rising number of motorcyclist deaths across the country. A recent federal study concluded helmets save lives and states repealing helmet requirements pay a deadly price: Fatalities rose 100 percent in Louisiana, 50 percent in Kentucky, 37 percent in Texas and 29 percent in Arkansas after those states made helmet use optional in recent years, the U.S. Department of Transportation said.

Motorcycle deaths have been going up for five years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said this spring. Motorcyclist fatalities rose 11 percent last year alone, from 3,244 in 2002 to 3,592 last year, the agency said. Another study from the federal agency last fall found that the ages of those killed are rising and the engine sizes of the bikes are getting bigger.

The findings prompted the nation's largest enthusiasts' group, the Motorcyclist Association of America, to urge Congress to finance a study to find the causes of the trend.

Such a study would need to consider many variables, including who caused the fatal crashes, whether roadway engineering or mechanical failures contributed, when intoxication was the main factor, and how many deaths were from head injuries that helmet use could have prevented, said Delaware State Police spokesman Lt. Joseph P. Aviola Jr.

But neither Aviola nor Breakiron - on opposite sides of the helmet issue - find the increase in rider age and engine size among fatalities mysterious. They said there are more older bikers and bigger bikes because of the rising popularity of motorcycling among baby boomers who can afford luxury bikes designed for long trips.

According to the Motorcycle Industry Council, a typical motorcyclist is a 38-year-old man with a wife, kids, college degree and $44,250 annual income.

Breakiron said he is better off without a helmet.

"I think I'm a safer operator without it - better peripheral vision, less road fatigue, you have that third eye in the back of your head, and I just feel more aware of my surroundings," he said. "Helmets give a false sense of security."

While helmets are an easy focus for safety concerns, Breakiron, Aviola and others said various factors may be causing more fatalities such as the rising number of motorcycles, motorcyclists riding more miles, greater overall traffic volume, increasingly complex traffic patterns, and a growing number of larger vehicles such as SUVs.

Longtime motorcyclist Thomas LeMin, who is Newark (Del.) Police Department's traffic lieutenant and supervises its motorcycle team, said it's important for motorists to remember that their perception of where bikes are may be deceiving.

"They may seem farther away than they are because they're so small," he said.

One 2003 statistic indicates what Aviola called "a definite area of concern," at least at the state level: Nine of those killed last year in Delaware had been drinking.

Jim-Bob Golden of Middletown, state coordinator of ABATE of Delaware, a motorcycle safety and charity group that began in 1977 to oppose the mandatory helmet law, said that fact surprised him. "It's disappointing," he said, and it's contrary to his observations.

When motorcyclists used to get together, he said, there was some hard drinking going on. "Now, we do twice as much water and soda as we do beer," Golden said. "It's a sign of the times."