Bikers have just as much right on the roads as any other vehicle. Sometimes I wonder if everyone understands that. Different types of vehicles require different precautionary measures. We pass bicyclists with different care than we pass cars, we give semi-tractor trailers different space then other motorist, we stay further back from gravel trucks and other vehicles where something could blow off of. The point here is every vehicle on the highway requires different care and safety considerations. That especially include motorcycles since once there is an accident, the potential for devastating injuries is far more than any other type of vehicle.
Approximately half of all motorcycle accidents are collisions with a car and most of the time its the car that is at fault. People simply do not exercise that added degree of safety when it comes to sharing the road with bikers. It is imperative to give motorcycles that extra space. Drivers of cars know when the roads are full of motorcycles and need to take the time to be sure. That blind spot that we have always known about in our side mirrors is especially dangerous when it comes to motorcycles. If a car can be hard or impossible to see in a side mirror, then certainly a motorcycle can. Seldom is a motorcycle accident the fault of the bike rider. Its other drivers of cars who simply do not take those extra steps and those few additional seconds to be sure. Here is an amazing statistic. The Safety Foundation's study revealed that the at-fault drives of cars who had accidents with motorcycle riders, found that if the drivers of those cars had taken the time to simply look twice before changing lanes, that half of those accident would not have occurred.
Biker Safety -- Be On the Lookout, and Look Twice
May 10, 2010
