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STATE & LOCAL
Thursday, April 13,1989
Bill, if signed, will require helmets
for riders of motorcycles, scooters
By Andrea Warrenburg
REPORTER
Operators of motorcycles, motor
scooters and mopeds soon may have
to give up a little personal freedom
[ortheir own safety.
A bill in the Texas Legislature
proposed by state Sen. Ted Lyon, D-
Mesquite, would require any person
operating or riding a motorcycle or
moped to wear a helmet.
At press time Wednesday, Gov.
Bill Clements had not signed the bill,
but was expected to do so. If signed,
the law would go into effect Sept. 1.
“The law will decrease accident se
verity, with possibly 15 percent to 20
percent fewer deaths,” Sandra Par
sons, Texas A&M Texas Transpor
tation Institute research associate,
said. “But it will not reduce accident
frequency.”
The law will be affecting the
nearly 2,300 cycle operators regis
tered with the University Police De
partment in Fall 1988. Almost 6 per
cent of all vehicles registered at
A&M are cycles compared to just
more than 1 percent of all state reg
istered vehicles. Thirty percent of
these operators are female.
A casual study of cyclists at A&M
conducted in Fall 1988 by Parsons
showed 81 percent of students do
not wear helmets and more males
wear helmets than females.
Katherine Barnett, a junior kine
siology major who rides a motor
scooter, said, “I know my parents
will be happy about the law. But to
me it will be an inconvenience and
take all the fun out of riding my
scooter.”
Had Binion, a junior agricultural
journalism major who has been rid
ing motorcycles since he was in sec
ond grade, said, “The law doesn’t
bother me because I wear a helmet
all the time anyway.”
Parsons and James Lock, TTI re
search scientist, conducted a fatality
study revealing motorcyclists are re
sponsible for more than 65 percent
of accidents in which they die, recog
nizing the need for a mandatory hel
met law and better rider training.
The study, used in legislative
hearings on helmet usage, found
77.5 percent of 142 selected motor
cycle fatalities in Texas in 1986 were
the fault of motorcycle operators.
Parsons and Lock studied 142 of 397
motorcycle fatalities from Texas De
partment of Public Safety 1986 acci
dent reports through the Traffic
Services Microcomputer System, a
TTI database software provided to
the DPS by TTI.
More than 8,000 motorcycle acci
dents are reported each year in
Texas. Thousands more less-serious
accidents probably go unreported,
Lock said.
The typical motorcycle rider in
volved in a fatal accident was a white
male, 26 to 30 years of age who was
not wearing a helmet and died of a
head injury. The average victim was
operating a 400 cc to 550 cc motor
cycle or 750 cc motorcycle at exces
sive speeds without a valid motorcy
cle license and no insurance liability.
One other vehicle and alcohol
usually were involved.
Parsons said riders need to receive
better training, such as advanced
rider courses, and licensing should
be enforced.
“Most riders drive without a li
cense and the only training they
have received is from their buddies,”
Parsons said.
She also said car drivers and mo
torcyclists need to be aware of each
other on the road. Car drivers
should be instructed on how to share
the road with cyclists and cyclists
need to increase their visibility with
headlights turned on at all times and
clothes with day-glow stripes.
Parsons said insurance companies
should offer incentives to safety-con
scious motorcyclists.
“Auto drivers can take defensive
driving classes and get a reduction
on insurance rates,” Parsons said. “If
motorcyclists take an advanced mo
torcycle training class, they should
receive a similar reduction.”
A&M begins charging $25 fee
to all applicants for admission
School hopes to aecrease number of applications, offset processing costs
By Kelly S. Brown
STAFF WRITER
This semester Texas A&M joined many other schools
across the nation when it began charging a $25 applica
tion processing fee for undergraduate and graduate
students who apply for admission.
Executive director of admissions and records Gary
Engelgau said fewer students are applying to Texas
A&M, while the number of students being accepted is
about the same as compared to last year.
The purpose of the fee is to offset processing costs,
and discourage students who are “shopping” for col
leges, he said.
Engelgau said as of this week, 12,171 freshman have
applied to A&M, while 10,130 of those students were
admitted. Last year at this time, 14,966 freshman had
applied, a difference of 2,795 from Fall 1988, and
10,017 were admitted. The number of graduate stu
dents applying for Fall 1989 was not available.
“Our intention was to knock down the number of ap
plicants by charging a fee,” Engelgau said. “The plan is
working.”
The plan may be working, but some students believe
it may hurt A&M in terms of quality students over time.
Bruce Minchey, a graduate student in agricultural
economics, supports an open application process.
“Many graduate students apply to different colleges
to see who offers them the best deal,” Minchey said. “A
great deal of the decision making hinges on who offers
the best fellowship or assistantship — a fee cuts the
choices, therefore an excellent student that A&M would
benefit from, may be disenchanted with the charge and
not apply.”
Minchey, who is the graduate-at-large senator in the
Student Senate, said many students have expressed
concern about the fee, saying a fee greatly limits the
possibility of a prospective student applying for admis
sion.
Although A&M installed the fee for the first time this
semester, other schools, such as the University of Texas
and Southern Methodist University, have had the
charge for years.
Dr. Ronald Brown, dean of students at the University
of Texas, said UT charges a $25 fee, and a $45 fee to
students applying for admittance into the master’s of
business administration program.
See Grad fee/Page 11
Photo by Kathy Haveman
Ed Bradley, co-editor for CBS’ “60 Minutes”
Journalist Ed Bradley
reflects on experiences
By Denise Thompson
STAFF WRITER
“I’d rather live in Vietnam
than New York.”
That’s the sentence that
changed Ed Bradley’s life.
Bradley, best known as a co-ed
itor for CBS’ “60 Minutes,” spoke
to about 50 people in a seminar,
“60 Minutes With Ed Bradley,” as
part of the MSG Wiley Lecture
Series. He said this remark led to
the most remarkable experience
of his life — covering the fall of
Cambodia in the 1970s.
“It’s hard to look at war and
the pain and suffering and say
you enjoyed it,” Bradley said,
“but I did.”
After graduating with a degree
in education from Cheyney State
College in Pennsylvania in 1964,
Bradley was teaching school and
working part-time at a small radio
station in Philadelphia, when he
decided to quit teaching and look
for a full-time broadcast position.
After applying to WCBS Radio
in New York, Bradley spent seve
ral days listening to the station’s
news broadcasts to get a feel for
their style. However, his quick
thinking and ability to “never tell
the truth but not tell a lie” got
him the position.
“They (the radio station) asked
me to send them a tape of actual
ity — interviews I had done with
people,” he said. “Well, I had to
think fast because I didn’t have
any. So I told them that we didn’t
have any because we were such a
small station and we didn’t save
them.”
Bradley convinced the station
to give him a recorder so he could
make a tape of actuality in New
York. After finding a story on the
front page of the New York
Times about a principal in a dis
pute, Bradley went to the princi
pal’s office to get an interview.
“I waited outside of his office
because his secretary told me he
was too busy to see me,” Bradley
said. “When he walked in the
door, I pushed the microphone
in his face and started asking
See Bradley/Page 11
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