Motorcyle Mayhem

Between weeks on-call and taxiing my children to and fro I ride my motorcyle to get some down time...and lately to save gas. My 84 Honda gets 53 MPG while my 98 Expedition guzzles about 15 a mile so when I'm going somewhere by myself or with only one of the boys in tow, I opt for the open air ride.

And with gas prices through the roof it's no surprise that every dad (and some moms) across America are looking to Motorcycles and Scooters for some back pocket relief.

But with the upturn in 2 wheeled riders on the road statistics would also tell you there will be more of a chance for trouble. Mix in a few inexperienced riders and it's a recipe for a news story. And an Associated Press Article from South Carolina on June 13 laid out these same basics from recent motorcycle crash data in that state.

I just didn't know last Friday that this particular story was about to land right smack dab in my lap.

I was already at my son's baseball game Friday afternoon (yeah the 13th) and about 20minutes into the game I got the call to check out a motorcycle wreck in my county.

It turned out to be a fatal where a 16 year old driver of a car turned into the path of an oncoming montorcycle. The female was charged with Misdemeanor Death by Motor Vehicle.

To make matters worse...this was the 3rd Fatal Motorcycle wreck in 3 days within about 5 miles of each other.

I got all the appropriate video for our 10 o'clock Friday show and with the AP story fresh in mind I asked the State Trooper a slew of extra questions about the dangers of more motorcycles on the road.

Being a motorcyclist himself Seargent Ben Stalvey obliged my line of questioning and because other news dominated the weekend shows, motorcyle safety became my story for Monday. A few rider training experts later and I had an instant Motorcycle Safety story for new motorcyclists and people driving 4 wheeled cars as well.

It's certainly not my best award winning effort but I would hope it would get people thinking about how many more 2 wheeled vehicles are traveling the roads.

And of course it was nice to see in one of the local papers today a very similar story about motorcycle safety. Sometimes we do beat the papers to the punch on issue stories!

If you ride a motorcycle, BE SAFE. If you drive, Watch out for Motorcycles!