Motorcycle Safety?

It is biker season around here. Since it is kind of a short one, due to weather, everyone with a motorcycle rides them as much as possible. They are kind of like peaches that way, I guess. Enjoy them while they last because they won't last long. I have been seeing many more reminders around town to "Start Seeing Motorcycles." Not a bad sentiment. It is good to be reminded that there is a seasonal element on the road right now. Kind of like ice and snow the rest of the year.

And I don't have trouble seeing the bikers that follow the traffic laws. Really. When a motorcycle moves in a predictable pattern along WITH the rest of traffic I have to believe that those of us on four wheels are better able to contribute to their safety on the road. Happy to help, really.

But I do have trouble with those riders who insist on speeding and performing random, radical lane changes willy-nilly. Yes, I said willy-nilly.

I have seen the fresh aftermath of two fatal motorcycle accidents in the last couple of years. And one of them, Moose and I saw the driving behavior that preceded the accident.

Willy-nilly on crack.

Turns out he was a middle-aged husband and father out at dusk on a well-travelled rural road. He was zipping around cars (easily 80 to 90 mph in a 55 zone), driving in the oncoming lane, racing past on the shoulder, and flipping off anyone who was obeying the speed limit. Shortly after he passed us, finger-a-flying, he turned onto a highway where he met another car. This one was, like us, filled with a family.

Unfortunately, his unpredictable and erratic behavior didn't land him that coveted 6 feet in front of the next car this time. It spread him thin across two lanes and landed what they could scoop up off the road 6 feet under.

We spotted his helmet, which had been sitting on the seat behind him, roughly 75 yards down the road. A little scratched up, but in one piece.

I was reminded of this just this morning on my gentle drive home from the garden center. My radio was off. I was not drinking coffee. Wasn't giving a practice spelling quiz to a kid in the backseat. I had both hands on the wheel and the windows down. Traffic was moving at the posted speed since there are several stoplights on this divided, 4 lane highway. And then Willy came along on his crotch-rocket. Wearing jeans and a t-shirt with the wind freely whipping through his light brown hair. He was hunched down, leaning forward, low and out of sight. He zipped between me and another car on the dotted, yellow line. At one of the red lights he actually rode on the shoulder and then pulled to the front of the line and waited in the crosswalk for the crossing light to turn red. He took off before his light turned green, cutting off the cars with a green left arrow and then drove off up a hill and right under a digital sign that said "Look out for motorcycles."

And now I want to know where the digital sign is that says, "Motorcycles are subject to traffic laws." And the bright bumper sticker with a silhouette of a bike on it that says, "I see you when you drive safely."