Articles – Page 33 – Shaun de Jager

Airbag Safety and Best Practices

In North America Airbags, aka Supplemental Restraint System (SRS), first started being installed in cars back in mid-1970’s and have been required by law since 1989. We all understand the basics – in the event of a collision, the airbags (but perhaps not all of them) will deploy to help protect the occupants. Pretty simple […]

Prescription Medicine, Drugs and Driving

This can often be a confusing issue. Whether we like it or not, at some point we’re going to end up taking some form of medication. Perhaps it’s just something from the shelf at your local pharmacy, known as Over The Counter (OTC) to treat the symptoms of the Common Cold, or perhaps it’s something […]

Check Your Nuts!

Hopefully by now everyone have switched to Winter tires but have you checked your lug nuts since they were switched? Well if you haven’t switched to Winter tires yet, you’re long overdue but it’s not too late and that’s something you should get done as soon as possible. The next thing to think about is […]

Towing an RV Travel Trailer Tip – Load Distribution

Once the weather starts getting nice, people all across North America hook up their travel trailers and head off on camping vacations. Sounds lovely. But one thing that most drivers don’t think about is how they load their trailer, which is hugely important. Time and time again, RV camping trailers sway out of control, flip […]

Ghost Car

Sometimes life is just stranger than fiction. This evening while coming home from Minden, we (fellow instructors Traci, Michelle and I) had an interesting and rather scary moment when we met a Ghost Car. Driving in Pea Soup thick fog (Traci was driving, I was in the front passenger seat, with Michelle in the back), […]

Gnashing of teeth into the dark of the night

September 2nd, 2010

Liz

The past few days have been rough on riders of motorcycles in the greater Toronto area.

It started in the wee hours of Saturday morning, with a shocking report about a rider who ran from police in Whitby. The rider wasn’t alone; there was a passenger on the back of the bike. When the rider cranked the throttle to escape police, the passenger fell off. And was immediately hit by more than one car; Whitby’s only 10 minutes east of Toronto and the 401 is busy, even at that time of night. One witness’s account of seeing body parts strewn across the 401 in the aftermath was so horrible I won’t dare repeat any of it. Death must have come quickly, but before shock set in the pain would have been unimaginable.

Horribly, that’s not the most shocking part: THE RIDER KEPT GOING. Left the passenger to be crushed and dismembered in traffic, without a look back. As did the cars who ran over her. No one stopped.

Let me repeat that: NO ONE STOPPED.

This is reminiscent of the murder of Kitty Genovese, who was stabbed to death near her home in the Kew Gardens section of Queens, New York on March 13, 1964, in full view of dozens of her neighbours. Some reportedly called police, but her attacker had time to leave and come back to finish the job. No one intervened.

How can that happen? There, then? Here, now?

Not many facts about Friday’s gruesome event have been made public. Why didn’t motorists stop? Did those who ran over the passenger’s body think that they’d hit a deer? How could the rider – regardless of WHY he (or she – police haven’t released the gender) was running from police – leave a passenger to die, alone?

These are troubling questions, and unlikely to be answered until the police find the rider and charge him or her, since it’s clear they’re holding their cards close to their collective chest until their investigation is ready to close in.

But this sordid tale has caused many a GTA motorcyclist several sleepless nights. There were 30 pages of posts in a discussion of the event on GTAMotorcycle.com by Saturday night. Almost everyone expressed shock and disbelief at the rider’s unconscionably cavalier disregard for his passenger’s life. A few implied that the guilty party was a member of the board well-known for speeding irresponsibly, often with passengers riding without protective gear. A small but vocal group was throwing out accusations that the draconian Ontario highway code that convicts speeders on the spot by confiscating vehicles was responsible for the rider running. That forums where riders discuss why they might run because of the new law might have influenced the rider.

That’s ludicrous. Let me make this clear: why the rider ran is irrelevant. I, and the majority of riders — THE MAJORITY OF HUMAN BEINGS — don’t care a whit WHY he or she ran. We want to know HOW anyone could do such a thing. Leave another human being to that passenger’s fate. Fail to stop once it was evident the passenger was gone.

How motorists, subsequently, could fail to stop.

How have we come to live in a society where any of these things are even possible?

Riders are a group hardened by the harsh reality of the danger of the sport. The passenger’s death isn’t the only one being discussed this week.

A funeral will be held Wednesday for a rider well-loved by many on the board after his bike piled into a car stalled at Eglington and Albina last Thursday. Another rider I know and respect is recovering from multiple broken ribs and internal injuries sustained when a moose jumped out in front of his bike three weeks ago on Highway 11 near Thunder Bay. Another friend may never be able to use one of his arms again after a horrible crash in North Carolina last summer.

An 18-year-old novice died earlier this month when she lost control of her motorcycle in Clarington. Another rider lost her life on Highway 507 near Gooderham yesterday, mere minutes from where a good friend of mine was hit by a pickup truck last October, shattering both her wrists, an eye socket, a knee, and inflicting many other excruciatingly serious injuries, some of which she may never completely recover from.

The “Rider Down” thread on GTAMotorcycle.com gets far too many posts each season, and each year as I meet more riders I personally know more of the riders who go down. As riders, we know the risks. Most of us wear as much protective gear as we can, knowing that it can happen to anyone, at any time, even when we’re vigilant, alert, and road conditions are perfect.

Motorists who have never ridden on two wheels are oblivious to how vulnerable riders are out there. This is evidenced by how closely they tailgate motorcycles in stop and go traffic. Tapping the bumper of a car scratches the paint. Tapping a motorcycle with your bumper puts that motorcycle down and INJURES the motorcyclist. Cutting off another car in traffic results in a fender bender. Cutting off a motorcycle in traffic can kill or permanently maim the motorcyclist. I really wish everyone had to ride a motorcycle in Toronto traffic, just for a day, before being issued a driver’s licence. Maybe they’d drive a bit more carefully.

But it’s clear that some motorists consider all motorcyclists a menace. I was stunned by the vitriolic comments some readers made on news sites where the story was posted, passing judgment on everyone who uses two wheels for transportation, based on this one rider’s actions. It’s disheartening to read that someone can hate you, without knowing anything about you, based on your mode of transportation.

But the hardest of all this week’s bad news was hearing that 13-year-old Peter Lenz was killed on Sunday after getting run over by another motorcycle at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during warm-up laps before his race.

Track is the safest place you can ride: the skills and focus of those on the track are light-years ahead of those of the average commuter. Although racing pushes the limits, track fatalities occur so rarely that any death on a track is shocking. But when the victim is only 13 years old and someone with such amazing talent that we were all watching, waiting, and hoping he would be the next Valentino Rossi… it doesn’t get much worse than that.

All these deaths make my heart ache. Peter’s broke it.

Please ride carefully, my friends. I’m not sure I can take much more of this kind of news.

Not an Accident

August 19th, 2010

admin

August 19, 2010
By: Shaun de Jager

This was no accident and nor is any collision on our roadways. It’s time people start calling things what they really are. This was a ‘crash’ or a ‘collision’. Not an accident. What’s the difference you ask? An ‘Accident’ is something that is unavoidable and unforeseen. Collisions or crashes ARE predictable and therefore avoidable

When we go out on our roads, there is always a chance of being involved in a crash. Lets face it…it happens several times a day. Although…if they happen everyday, they are predictable. So how do you avoid them? Well for starters pay attention to your surroundings and road conditions. By keeping a careful watch on the vehicles around you, you are more able to spot certain behaviours that may lead to trouble. It only takes one person to not pay attention to create the conditions for a collision. However, it only takes one person who is paying attention to recognise those developing conditions and avoid them entirely. It’s a simple thing called ‘Situational Awareness’ but it’s something that is sorely lacking on our roads – especially among car drivers. The most attentive road users are motorcyclists and professional truck drivers. Both know full well that they must be well aware of everything going on around them and plan well ahead while navigating our dangerous roadways.

So what’s wrong with the term ‘accident’? We’ve been calling it that for decade’s right? Yes we have but it’s the wrong term to use because every crash on our roads is in fact avoidable and there is always someone responsible for it. Crashes as a result of Drinking and Driving are avoidable. Crashes that are a result of careless or distracted driving are avoidable. Even crashes that occur because of mechanical failures are avoidable (check your tire pressures, brakes, etc. basically make sure that your vehicle is mechanically sound and your wheels won’t fall off).

My biggest issue with the term ‘accident’ is that it seems to absolve a person’s sense of accountability for what happened – even when deemed at fault. A fellow tells his friend “Oh I had an accident yesterday” and his friend replies “It’s ok…it was an accident. You couldn’t avoid it. It happens so don’t worry about it.” This is such a poor attitude to take. Yes you probably could have avoided it had you paid more attention to your surroundings. Why are collisions acceptable? They shouldn’t be acceptable at all but we blow them off because we call them accidents – it was unavoidable. I didn’t do anything wrong! Maybe…but there’s always more that you could have done ‘right’ to have avoided it altogether.

“The guy ran a red light and T-Boned me!” Sure…ok…but you were making a left hand turn, so it’s your responsibility to ensure that you can make that turn safely. It’s not the red light that stops a car at an intersection; it’s the driver of the car approaching it. You are assuming that other driver is paying attention to the lights. You are ultimately responsible for what happens to you on our roads. If that car approaching the red light isn’t slowing down fast enough…assume that he won’t stop at all. If you don’t have a clear view of on-coming traffic…don’t risk making that turn until you do.

This is just one example but I could go on and on with other situations that could result in a collision and how to avoid them just by paying more attention and making alternate assumptions. If I can – so can you. Therefore crashes on our roads are NOT accidents – they are avoidable. There is almost always a shared responsibility for what happens regardless of who is found at fault by either the police or your insurance company.

If you want to reduce your chance of being in a ‘collision’, pay more attention to your surroundings and road conditions and get some advanced driver training. Those added skills could save your life.

Learning Curves – Review

July 31st, 2010

admin

www.learningcurves.ca

July 31, 2010
By: Shaun de Jager
Published in 2Ride Magazine

Each Spring, more and more people take up motorcycling and they do so for a wide range of reasons. As such, motorcycle training schools across the country quickly fill up with students who are new to riding or those who are returning after taking many years off.

Whether you are new to riding or someone who is taking up riding again, the question that is often asked is “Why take a course? Isn’t it just like riding a bike?”

The short answer is no…it’s not.

Riding a motorcycle comes with risk, just like driving a car does. However, making a mistake on a motorbike can have far greater consequences. The point to taking a safety course is to mitigate and reduce those risks. Instructors start you with the basics of where the controls are and how to use them and rapidly move you up to required skills like emergency braking, obstacle avoidance and proper vision techniques.

Even for those who have ridden before and are returning to riding much has changed in the past decade and so have the bikes that are available today. For those who have many years experience riding dirt bikes, riding on public roads is a very different experience since trees don’t tend to simply jump out in front of you (only those who drive/ride drunk would disagree with that statement).

In general, people take up riding for many reasons ranging from a childhood fantasy to a mid-life crisis, encouragement from their friends or family, to wanting to save on gas, or simply wanting to indulge in the pure joy and sensations that riding provides and that they’ve heard about. Many of the joys of riding are foreign to new riders until they actually get out on their own bike and discover the thrills, adventures and excitement on their own.

I recently spent some time at “Learning Curves” a motorcycle safety school in Toronto and talked to some of the students and their instructors. The students shared the opinion that they wanted to learn the basics of motorcycle riding and some students went far as to say that they are taking the course to learn to “stay alive”. Although a relatively new school, Learning Curves bring to the table decades of combined motorcycling experience. The owners and head instructors have a long history in the riding community teaching others how to ride and most of their junior instructors come from other schools. What makes Learning Curves different is their personal touch and hands-on teaching style.

Let’s face it, we all learn differently and while we may excel with some concepts, we may lack in other areas. These instructors teach differently and adapt to your needs as a student, even spending more time with individual riders to help them in areas where they are weak.

The instructors fully understand what’s involved in riding on public roads and are there to pass down their knowledge much like native cultures pass down knowledge from one generation to the next by showing them first hand. We all start out the same as newbies, without a clue what we are doing and it’s the instructor’s passion for riding and willingness to “pay it forward” that makes taking a course enjoyable. Just observing the instructors running along side the students and taking extra time talking to those who required some extra tutelage, showed how much they cared about arming new riders with the basic knowledge and skills that they would need to head out on the open roads. It helps also that the instructors remember what it’s like to be new at riding and teach without the “I know more than you so you better listen” attitude found at some other schools. It also helps that they all have a great sense of humour and friendliness that makes students feel at ease from the moment you arrive.

As with other Ministry approved riding schools, Learning Curves offers both M1 and M2 exit courses and administers the Ministry skills test at the end of the program. Most schools focus on teaching you what you need to pass the Ministry tests at the end of the course but Learning Curves takes it to another level with additional tips, techniques and advice to add another level of safety for their students to take to the road. With that in mind though, if a student doesn’t “get it” they won’t pass the test. Another thing that really makes Learning Curves stand apart from the rest is their “Street Proofing” program. Once a student passes the M1 course, they will take you out on the streets at a later date (using your own bike once you get it) and show you how to ride in the real world (which is vastly different from puttering around in a safe, controlled parking lot) offering up tips and advice along the way. This is an invaluable service to help new riders navigate the roads safely.

Whatever your reasons are for taking up riding, please take the time to do it safely and take a safety course. It’s worth far more than it costs and should be considered a personal investment in you. Most riding schools offer not only a basic course for those who are new to riding but also advanced courses too. Some regions have graduated licensing and local schools, which are certified by their local governing body, offer weekend courses that focus on the skills required and actually administer the ministry tests that are required to graduate to the next level.

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