Entry bubble Motorcycle Safety

By: Stephanie | April 15, 2008 | Category: Health

In the spring, a young woman’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of ... motorcycling.

Apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, but I can’t help having that altered poetry in my head right now. The warm April weather prompts me and my husband to finally take motorcycle lightsthe winter tarp off our motorcycle and head out down the road. There are some great national parks, trails, and wildlife refuges that we can bike to. And we'll join many other bikers on the road, apparently: motorcycles are the fastest growing form of personal transportation in the United States. Even the head of the U.S. Department of Transportation rides a hog.

But we don't take our motorcycle into the street without first inspecting it, digging our helmets out of storage, and finding our armor jackets and boots. May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) offers motorcycle safety information, plus has some sobering stats on motorcycle-related deaths. For example, motorcycle fatalities now account for 11 percent of total road fatalities, and have more than doubled in a decade.

As part of our safety education, my husband and I took a course with the Motorcycle Safety Foundation, a nonprofit that works with NHTSA and offers more than 1,500 rider education and training courses across the country. The organization offers basic rules for motorcyclists, including riding within one's limits and wearing protective gear. NHTSA estimates that helmets saved the lives of 1,546 motorcyclists in 2005. If all motorcyclists had worn helmets, 728 more people could have been saved.

Car drivers also can do their part to make motorcycling a safer pursuit—including giving two-wheelers some room, looking out for motorcyclists, and using turn signals. NHTSA offers humorous posters for car drivers to educate them about motorcycles on the road, such as the "Tough on the Outside. Soft and Squishy on the Inside" poster. Not terribly poetic, either. But it just might save a life.

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