Yeah, that personal freedom stuff all sounds nice and great, until the rest of us end up holding the bag for the consequences of someone's "free choice"...in this case, the family who is left without a loved one, the cost of search and rescue (or in this case, recovery), etc.....

As to helmet laws: ever since the abandonment in Florida, there has been a 85% increase in serious head injuries....guess who pays for the lifelong institutional care required for these consequences of "free choice"?