Word: helmeted
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...face obscured by a helmet, a dark figure climbed off his motorcycle and strode toward a house in a village outside Bayonne in southwest France. Before he reached the door, gunfire erupted, and within minutes French authorities captured the notorious leader of the Basque hard-liners, Jose Antonio Urrutikoetxea (alias: Josu Ternera), 38. The arrest last week of the ETA (Basque Homeland and Liberty) terrorist was hailed as a major breakthrough in a three-year Franco-Spanish offensive against Basque extremists fighting for independence in Spain...
Sept. 1. Almost two days after Rother went into the desert, he is reported missing. The Marine Corps launches a 1,758-man search, complete with helicopters and jeeps equipped with infrared thermal imaging devices, to track him down. The searchers find Rother's helmet, flak jacket and backpack. They also discover an arrow, laid out on the ground with stones and pointing southeast, that Rother may have constructed to indicate the direction in which he was traveling. But after three days, the search party fails to find him. A month later, a second Marine-led search party...
...Sundays along beautiful Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, it is not unusual to spot, among the lesser folk and the Hell's Angels, such celebrated motorcycle devotees as Sylvester Stallone, Lorenzo Lamas, Mickey Rourke and Gary Busey. Few wear helmets, since California is one of 28 states that do not require them for adults. Last week fate dealt Busey, 44, a blow that tragically called into question his vocal opposition to mandatory-helmet laws and renewed debate on the issue...
Busey's accident prompted California legislators to reintroduce a bill requiring all motorcycle riders to wear helmets. Twelve years ago, 47 states had such laws (though not California). Most were passed in response to federal rules cutting U.S. highway funds to states without such provisions. But bike lobbies persuaded Congress in 1976 to erase the financial sanction, and more than half the states revoked or weakened their helmet laws. Over the next three years, motorcycle fatalities leaped more than 40%, according to federal figures...
Many cyclists insist the decision to wear a helmet is a matter of personal freedom. "A motorcyclist should be able to feel the wind through his hair if that's what he wants," says Wayne Thomas of the California Motorcyclists Association. But the price of such freedom can be high not only for the individual cyclist but for society at large. A study of 105 bike-accident victims hospitalized in Seattle during 1985 found that of the $2.7 million they incurred in medical bills, 63% was paid for out of public funds. Says John Cook of the Insurance Institute...