• 28
  • April
    2011

May is National Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month. Given the role that inattentive passenger car drivers play in so many motorcycle accidents, the word needs to get out that the safety reminders are not only for motorcyclists. Everyone who shares the road has a responsibility to do so safely with others.

Drivers should be getting used to the site of motorcycles on Texas roads and highways. After all, there are nearly one million riders in our great state. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, the number of licensed motorcyclists is 961,682. And the number continues to increase.

Over 37,000 students took Texas Motorcycle Operator Training Program courses last year. This is an indicator of how serious most motorcyclists are about safety.

What about car drivers, though? Far too often, they claim that they didn't see motorcyclists in time to prevent any accident. In fact, passenger car drivers tend to do this even when the accident was caused by their own inattentiveness

For example, on March 17, a 25-year-old motorcycle rider named Zacharie Perez was rear-ended by a car on the North Texas Tollway. The occupants of car were reportedly "dancing in their seats, acting like fools," according to Perez, who had passed them earlier.

Perez spent five days in the hospital after the collision and lost his spleen. He is glad to be alive, but concerned about the possibility of chronic back pain caused by the accident.

If you have been injured in a motorcycle accident, contact me to discuss your rights.

Source: "Texas DPS reminds that May is National Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Month," Dallas News, 4-25-11