Telegraph, The (Nashua, NH)
August 15, 2005
Section: Amherst
A case for safety around cyclists
I hate cars. Sure they're convenient, but did you know that automobiles are the leading killer of America's youth? So sayeth the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. Cars kill kids, for your convenience.
I know, that's over the top. Cars don't mean to kill and maim people. They do it on accident. I drive a car, too, and I'm keeping it.
I'm just angry because a friend of mine, Adam Bell, 32, from Wayland, Mass., got killed by a car last week while he was out riding his motorcycle with a small group of friends.
We all know motorcycles are dangerous, but Adam was one of the better riders I know. He wore a helmet and leathers every time out. He'd taken Motorcycle Safety Foundation training, and he rode a lot, always with care.
Adam was a great guy, too. He was quick of wit, friendly and fun to be around. He was happy to share his opinions, a joke or whatever else he could spare. He'd just married Annie last year, and recently got his green card. Like his Triumph motorcycles, he was English, and proud of it.
Adam had lots of friends. He's no longer riding with us because an elderly driver turned left from a full stop in the northbound lane, crossing Adam's path in the southbound lane. It happened last Sunday afternoon on Route 89 in Connecticut. Adam was in the middle of a group, with two riders ahead and one behind him, but such details aren't really all that important. It could and does happen to anyone, anywhere, anytime. The Telegraph has reported many similar accidents. I've written about some myself.
More than half (54 percent) of fatal motorcycle accidents result from collisions with other vehicles (again from the NHTSA), and cars are at fault for a great many, perhaps most, of those crashes. The American Motorcycle Association argues cars can be blamed for a good many of those "single vehicle" motorcycle crashes, too, given how often motorcycles get run off the road.
Invariably, drivers claim not to have seen the motorcycle.
How can anyone fail to notice a motorcycle? They are big and shiny, and often loud. They have at least one bright light in front and back. They stand out a whole lot more than bicyclists, children, dogs, deer or any number of other things that might pop up in a roadway.
Of course, cars don't kill people, drivers do. Drivers in New Hampshire can be held criminally responsible when they seriously injure another person, even by accident, while flouting any rule of the road, but the law is rarely, if ever, enforced. Drivers who kill or maim motorcyclists typically get a traffic ticket for failure to yield or crossing the centerline.
Motorcycle fatalities have risen each year for the past eight years, according to the NHTSA. The agency notes a corresponding increase in motorcycle sales, but the death rate per number of motorcycles also has climbed.
The NHTSA has begun a study looking at what causes motorcycle crashes, but it doesn't expect to finish until September 2009. Thus far, the federal agency can tell us with reasonable certainty that motorcyclists are more likely to die if they are young, unlicensed, intoxicated, and speeding into a curve at night on a liter-bike while not wearing a helmet.
Motorcyclists know that it's dangerous. Some motorcyclists have been known to flirt with danger on purpose, though Adam was more conservative. Many of us try to minimize the hazards, by wearing protective gear and riding defensively. We all hope that "it" won't happen to us, but we know it could. That's why we get so upset when some knucklehead swerves into our lane, pulls out in front of us, cuts us off, or comes around a curve in the oncoming lane.
It sometimes seems as though you drivers are trying to kill us riders, and it's hard not to take it personally. And sometimes, drivers do kill one of us, and that's just hard to take at all.
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Originally Posted by Kham
