Somewhere along the way in their quest to shield the good citizens of Utah County from the dangerous depredations of longboarders, elected officials veered off the path.

What started as an effort by county commissioners to protect pedestrians on the Provo Parkway Trail near Bridal Veil Falls has expanded into an effort to protect longboarders from themselves.

It's not enough for the longboarders to avoid crashing into people along the trail. Now they must wear helmets. In fact, anybody riding a self-propelled vehicle -- a bicycle, a scooter, a longboard -- falls under the new helmet rule, which commissioners enacted on Tuesday by a 2-0 vote. The two were Steve White and Larry Ellertson. The third commissioner, Gary Anderson, was out of town and apparently failed to connect to the meeting by telephone.

This Utah County helmet law appears to be a first in Utah, where we have -- until now -- avoided going the way of California and like states. In California, the government has been intruding on people's personal freedoms for years. It was probably inevitable that it would happen here, too. We're just a little surprised that it's happening first in Utah County.

The camel's nose is now in the tent.

California has expanded it's mandatory helmet laws over nearly four decades, beginning with motorcycles, then moving questionably to bicycles and finally and absurdly to skateboards and scooters. The encroaching laws to protect people from themselves haven't really done much for public safety, although they have been a great boon to some commercial helmet manufacturers in Southern California.

While wearing helmets and other protective gear is wise for high-impact mountain bikers, racers, skateboard acrobats and the like, it's ridiculous to apply the same rules to little kids on training wheels, sixth-graders on push scooters or silver-haired couples who like to toodle around casually now and then on a bicycle.

With all due respect to the athletic and fashion accomplishments of those in the bicycle club scene, the risks are simply not the same for everyone.

There has been no rash of longboarders bashing their own heads in on the Provo Parkway Trail. Accidents have been rare. The widely cited cases of two longboard deaths in Salt Lake County need to be addressed with caution: those riders were moving extremely fast on very steep slopes, unlike the gentle Parkway where the object is generally a mellow ride over a long distance.

Helmet initiatives have popped up now and then in Utah. Not long ago, Salt Lake City tried to force bicyclists to wear helmets, for example, but the efforts were appropriately smacked down by the people. Perhaps our county commissioners weren't watching, as they have now established their own unnecessary and intrusive beach-head leading into our private lives.

We support reasonable measures aimed at protecting innocent bystanders from the hazards of zooming longboards, scooters and bicycles. Those concerns were properly addressed in various ways in the new county ordinance -- no-pedestrian zones, no-riding zones, a 15-mph speed limit and even a 6-foot dog leash rule to keep furry critters out of the bike path. These are sufficient to allay any worries about legal liability.

But commissioners went too far when they decided that a helmet on a longboarder's head serves a justifiable public purpose. A helmet on every bystander's head at Bridal Veil Falls would make as much sense.

Cities throughout Utah County, like the state as a whole, have steered clear of mandatory helmet laws. A skate park in Provo is typical of the prevailing view. A sign is posted announcing that the park is unsupervised, that skaters use the facility at their own risk and that protective gear is strongly recommended.

This is the status on Provo's portion of the Parkway trail as well. Thus longboarders and bicyclists must wear a helmet on the county portion of the trail, but not on the Provo city portion. Go figure.

We understand that the ordinance passed by two officials on Tuesday may have been a way to quickly restore longboarders to Provo Canyon after a brief ban. Some issues needed working out. But helmets should not be one of those. County commissioners should extract themselves from this silliness at their public meeting Aug. 29.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A5.

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