But, unfortunately, actual brain surgery all too often is what's needed to patch up helmetless drivers who crash their motorcycles.

A recent University of Pittsburgh Medical Center study found that motorcycle-related head-injury deaths rose by nearly a third in the two years after the repeal. Head-injury hospitalizations were up even more than that - while hospital charges more than doubled, and the average cost of treating each head-injured person reached $88,000.

It's not increased interest in riding a Harley that has caused the dramatic increase in fatalities and head injuries. Researchers adjusted their data for any hike in motorcycle ownership registrations.

But, really, who needed another study to confirm the outcome that common sense and the laws of physics already dictated?

If you fall off a moving vehicle, it's going to be much worse for your bare head than for the road.

Emergency room doctors long predicted that the cost to the health-care system would be substantial from riders injured without helmets, and they're right.

That should resonate with Gov. Rendell, inasmuch as he's pushing to reduce health spending and boost access to care with multiple reform initiatives.

Here's an easy way to save 88 grand per person: Go back to requiring every motorcyclist to cover up with a good helmet (not one of those little skullcaps).

So it's disheartening that the release of this study prior to its August publication in the American Journal of Public Health hasn't budged Rendell's view.

He says motorcyclists ought to wear helmets, but he continues to favor the 2003 repeal of the law requiring helmets for all riders. (First-time motorcyclists still must wear a helmet in the state.)

Rendell made a strategic decision several years ago in supporting the repeal, apparently reasoning that this was one battle not worth fighting.

Well, the toll in pain and suffering grows greater and greater with each year that the state permits bikers to ride without head protection.

At some point, Pennsylvania will likely rejoin the ranks of progressive states that require helmets for all riders, rather than just the first-timers.

How can it keep ignoring the evidence that the repeal was a bad decision?

Unless the governor and state legislators are willing to stand by while people needlessly are killed and maimed in bike crashes.