CARSON CITY -- Two men who suffered serious injuries in motorcycle accidents led a chorus of witnesses Tuesday who told legislators it would be a mistake to repeal the state helmet law.

Only one person out of the 20 who testified spoke in favor of Sen. Bob Beers' Senate Bill 49, which would repeal the 35-year-old law requiring motorcyclists and their passengers to wear helmets.

The most poignant testimony during the Senate Transportation Committee hearing was given by former motorcyclists Bob Hamilton and Joey Miller, who testified by video teleconference from Las Vegas.

"I am alive today because of the helmet law," Hamilton said. "I don't remember the wreck. I was wearing a cheap macho brain bucket with a phony sticker on it" -- that did not meet federal standards. "That was a bad choice on my part. The wiring in my head gets scrambled up. It was a good thing I was wearing a helmet at all. If not, I would have died."

Hamilton, who uses a walker, said he lost a lucrative business because of his injury, but he is thankful his children "don't have to grow up without their dad."

Miller said three doctors told him he would have died if he had not been wearing his helmet at the time of his accident in 2005.

Beers, R-Las Vegas, said he introduced the bill at the request of motorcycle-riding constituents. Supporters of the proposal did not have time to mobilize and attend the meeting, he said.

Only four states allow all motorcyclists and riders to ride without helmets. Twenty require riders and passengers to wear helmets. The other 26 allow riders to go helmetless, but require helmets on passengers under age 18 or 21.

Beers said there are conflicting studies on whether riders who wear helmets have fewer brain injuries than non-riders.

"It may come down to your personal philosophy on liberty and whether it is government's role to tell adults they must wear a helmet while on a motorcycle," Beers said.

Chairman Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, said it was the first time he can remember when supporters of the helmet law outnumbered opponents. He said he would keep the record open until Thursday to allow others to submit written comments on their views about the bill. A vote on the bill will come later.

Nolan said notification of the hearing was made on Friday so opponents and supporters had an equal chance to testify.

Nolan said 13 previous attempts to repeal the helmet law have failed in the past 25 years.

Motorcyclist Mikey Jones said he survived an accident in 1991 because he was not wearing a helmet.

"I didn't break my neck," he said. "I broke 83 bones. I survived an accident in which I should have died."

He was the exception. Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy said drivers without helmets are 40 percent more likely to suffer a fatal injury than those wearing an appropriate helmet.

"We don't need the business," he added.

Dr. John Fildes, medical director of the trauma center at University Medical Center, said every injured motorcyclist with whom he has spoken has been thankful for the second chance given them by helmets.

Other witnesses said the typical traumatic head injury accident costs $2 million over the lifetime of the survivor and 50 such accidents would be expected a year in Nevada if the helmet law was repealed.