{"id":2055,"date":"2012-05-09T01:27:47","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T01:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/?p=2055"},"modified":"2012-10-02T16:31:43","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T16:31:43","slug":"moto-crashes-on-the-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/moto-crashes-on-the-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"Moto Crashes on the Rise"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Crash\"<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>May 8th, 2012
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not much of a leap of logic to realize that with the arrival of Spring, motorcycle crashes are on the rise. This happens every year around this time — more bikes on the road equals more bikes involved in crashes. Although what\u2019s bothersome about this is that most of the motorcycle crashes at this time of year involve other vehicles at intersections — at least it seems so based on initial reports and prior to conclusive crash scene reconstruction. What\u2019s also bothersome is that in most cases where a motorcycle is involved in a crash with another vehicle at an intersection, the fault of the collision usually falls on the driver and not the rider — which is statistically substantiated.<\/p>\n

The most common thing the driver says\u2026.\u201dI didn\u2019t see them\u201d.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t an excuse and the reality is that the driver didn\u2019t look properly. This also goes for when cyclists and pedestrians are struck by cars. Okay, it\u2019s not always <\/em>the drivers fault. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists have been known to dart out in front of a vehicle without looking but in most cases its the lack of driver awareness that results in a crash.<\/p>\n

Believe it or not, crash rates are at their highest during the Summer and usually occur on sunny days when driving conditions are ideal. So if road and weather conditions aren\u2019t a factor\u2026what\u2019s causing drivers to crash?<\/p>\n

You can probably narrow it down to two main factors\u2026driver behaviour and lack of situational awareness.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2XIm7yb9voM<\/p>\n

^ Nearly hit by turning car<\/p>\n

As a road user, regardless of your chosen mode of travel, it\u2019s up to you to do everything you can to stay safe on the road.\u00a0Some people tend to forget that driving on our roads is the one thing we do on a regular basis that has the potential to get us killed and it really only takes one person to not pay attention to create the conditions for a crash to occur. You could also say that it really only takes one person to pay a lot of attention and therefor be able to recognize the potential <\/em>for dangerous situations and avoid them entirely, therefore no collisions occur. Look twice and pay attention. Look THREE times and be extra sure that nobody is coming before making that turn, or lane change, or before going through an intersection.<\/p>\n

Recently at least five separate motorcyclists were involved in crashes with vehicles in the Greater Toronto Area over the first weekend in May. Furthermore, there have been about 18 motorcycle crashes for the month of April that occurred in and around the GTA as far as this writer is aware of (although I\u2019m sure there are more).<\/p>\n

Contrary to the beliefs of many, not all motorcyclists are \u2018big bad bikers\u2019 or \u2018crotch rocket hooligans\u2019 anymore than all cyclists are \u2018crazy couriers\u2019 slinging a satchel. Nor are all pedestrians mindless drones that blindly walk in front of cars and not all car drivers are \u2018careless, clueless jerks\u2019 who are out to kill everyone on the road. Regardless of our opinion of other road users, you\u2019re probably just as much a part of the problem (or at least occasionally have been at times) but you can also be part of the solution.<\/p>\n

We all need to pay a lot more attention on our roads, regardless of if you are a driver, cyclist, pedestrian, or motorcyclist. Your life and your future is in your hands but they are also in the hands of others\u2026people whom you\u2019ve never even met. Conversely\u2026their life is in your hands too.<\/p>\n

Before taking to our roadways, clear your mind of everything (positive or negative because both can distract you), avoid as many in-car distractions as possible and focus solely on the road.<\/p>\n

Remember\u2026road safety starts with you.<\/p>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iToE0InVDIo<\/p>\n

^ Driver runs red light<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 8th, 2012 It\u2019s not much of a leap of logic to realize that with the arrival of Spring, motorcycle crashes are on the rise. This happens every year around this time — more bikes on the road equals more bikes involved in crashes. Although what\u2019s bothersome about this is that most of the motorcycle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[81,38,6,5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pedVzR-x9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2055"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2059,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2055\/revisions\/2059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shaundejager.com\/road-safety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}