The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS - Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster took issue with the latest federal report detailing the increase in motorcyclist deaths in the state in the two years after he persuaded the Legislature to repeal the mandatory helmet law in 1999.

Fifty-three motorcyclists were killed in Louisiana in 1997 and 1998, the two years before the repeal; that number grew to 111 in the first two full years after the repeal, 2000 and 2001, according to the study released by the U.S. Transportation Department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"The NHTSA wanted to hear that fatal crashes have doubled, and they looked for statistics that supported that," Foster said in a news release Wednesday. "It's true that the number of accidents has increased. But the report leaves a lot out of the picture, like the increasing number of motorcycle riders."

The increase in ridership is in the NHTSA report. The report acknowledges that the number of registered motorcycles in Louisiana rose from 60,042 in 1997 to 72,445 in 2000.

The report, which also measured the effects of a similar helmet law repeal in Kentucky, notes that the number of motorcyclists killed per 10,000 motorcycles registered in each state increased after the helmet law was repealed.

"The fatality rate by vehicle registrations increased after the repeal of each state's universal motorcycle helmet law by much more than the number of registrations or the national rate," the report says.

In Louisiana, the report says, the fatality rate averaged 4.5 per 10,000 registered motorcycles in the two years before the helmet law repeal and rose to 7.9 in the year following. "The injury rate averaged 126 persons in the two years before the helmet law repeal and increased to 152 persons in the year following repeal of the universal motorcycle helmet law," the report adds.

Foster also cited a statistic in a Louisiana Highway Safety Commission study showing that the number of fatalities per crash rose by only a fraction of a percentage point from 1998 to 2000 and went down slightly, to 3.8 percent, in 2001.

Highway safety experts long have been pushing for the Legislature to undo the 1999 law that repealed the mandatory helmet law in Louisiana for anyone 18 or older who carries a minimum of $10,000 in medical insurance. Foster successfully has fought off attempts to restore the law, promising a veto.

The governor, an avid motorcyclist, said the state should consider requiring a safety course for motorcycle riders. "I would like to see a safety course mandatory before anyone can get a license to operate a motorcycle."