Myrtle Beach Helmet Law Struck Down
In a unanimous decision announced in June, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that a Myrtle Beach law requiring motorcyclists to wear helmets is invalid. The ruling also negated several other ordinances the Myrtle Beach City Council had enacted in 2008 to rid the city of biker events.
The court ruled that the city could not supersede state law, which does not require helmets for any motorcycle riders over 21. The court said that if cities were allowed to enact such laws, it would be too confusing for motorcyclists traveling across the state.
For years, hundreds of thousands of bikers traveled to Myrtle Beach in May for two events--the Harley-Davidson rally and the Atlantic Beach Memorial Day Bikefest. Two years ago, the city council decided that it did not want bikers in town during May and adopted a number of stringent laws trying to dissuade the motorcyclists from coming to town. Among these laws were a requirement that everyone on a motorcycle must wear a helmet, that groups could not congregate in parking lots, that no business could allow open containers on its property or parking lot, and a curfew for late night activities.
When these ordinances were first passed, the city established an administrative court and made these violations administrative infractions. The "biker" ordinances were left on the books as administrative infractions, even after the city disbanded its administrative court. The high court ruled since these were administrative, they could not be enforced as laws.
A defiant Myrtle Beach Mayor John Rhodes said the court's decision did not change the city's goal of getting rid of bikers. He said that other than the helmet law that was declared invalid, the other ordinances would be put back on the books as misdemeanors as soon as the city council gets a chance to do so.
Rhodes said that all of the helmet violation tickets would have to be torn up, the records expunged and between $13,000 and $14,000 in fines and interest payments on the helmet tickets it prosecuted over the past two years returned to riders. Nearly 400 tickets were written and prosecuted.
BOOST, a large group of Myrtle Beach area business owners and employees who fought the city's stance against bikers, said it was pleased with the decision but was afraid the action came too late to save many small businesses that were hurt the last two years from loss of revenue. BOOST president Robert Kelley said this should be a message to the city of Myrtle Beach, "that the end does not justify the means."
It remains to be seen what that means for the future of bike weeks in the city, according to downtown business owners like Karon Mitchell. Mitchell said although it’ll be a long time before she’ll be able to welcome bikers to stay at several of her motels, she hopes they come back in full force as early as next year.
“The city made our visitors angry,“ she said. “Myrtle Beach and the businesses are still taking a hit from it. It was not just the bikers and it was not just the helmet thing, but it was the negative publicity that hit Myrtle Beach.“
“We’re faced with tourism devastation,“ said BOOST spokesman Tom Herron. “We’re faced with empty hotels, we’re faced with businesses that have gone out of business. Some of the greatest businesses in Myrtle Beach are gone.“
Herron claims the city ran off bikers and severely damaged the economy and reputation of Myrtle Beach by implementing the helmet law and other ordinances out of spite instead of addressing safety concerns and finding a workable compromise.
