Deadly Roads

Hearing about a motorcycle accident always hits home a little harder when you're a rider yourself, and even more so when you have friends who ride and when you work in an industry that is related to motorcycles and riders. 

Speed only compounds the negative results of a motorcycle accident

Having spent the past weekend at the Calgary Folk Festival and being pretty laid back, I did not read the paper or listen to or watch the news of any kind until Monday evening, where there was a story about yet another deadly motorcycle accident, just one of many that occurred on the weekend.

Looking into the last story, a truck slammed into the back of another truck that had stopped or slowed down for some reason, perhaps waiting to turn left across the opposing lane. The impact of the rear end accident sent the truck into the oncoming lane, striking a group of riders who were travelling together in the opposite direction. In a split second, 5 bikes are wiped out and one rider died on the scene, with others seriously injured, and transported to hospital in life threatening condition.

Of course, I don't know all the facts, why the vehicle hit the other, how fast anyone was going, why the truck ended up in the opposing lane, or anything else about the cause, but a mistake was made, maybe by more than one person, and people on motorcycles died as a result.

There's always the chance that the accident has happened to someone you know and when a motorcycle is involved, the rider always loses.

Head on typically results in a fatality

Looking back on the too many fatalities and accidents from the weekend, and the others that have occurred over the Summer so far, there are just as many reasons for accidents on bikes as there are days in the month. Unfortunately, too many have the tag line "speed and alcohol were factors", which means totally preventable in my mind.

"Speed and Alcohol" are factors which just compound what is already a potentially dangerous scenario.

There is never a happy ending to an accident involving a motorcycle

I once worked for a company that issued their own internal licences, had their own training and enforcement officers, and had a demerit system based on  both 'fault' and 'prevention'. A "preventable accident" was defined by the concept of defensive driving, whereby the operator of a vehicle drives to prevent accidents despite the action or inaction of other drivers.

If a driver/operator was involved in an accident deemed preventable, demerits were issued and a licence could be suspended. In fact, their demerit system was twice as stringent as the Provincial standard and a suspension could occur with just 6 demerits. Involvement in two accidents within a 3 year span could mean loss of licence, thereby a demotion, or worse, dismissal.

Once again, the motorcyclist loses.

I'm not saying any of the aforementioned motorcyclists involved in their respective accidents were at fault, nor that the accidents were even preventable, since I do not know that facts. But I am saying that we all need to do our part to be drive defensively, watch out for each other when on the road, and avoid the carnage that is far too common and seems to be getting worse and worse with each passing year.