May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month. As the weather gets nicer, more bikers, cyclists and pedestrians are getting out there and the William Mattar Law Offices are reminding us about sharing the road.
Meet Christopher Gresham. He is a lawyer and rides a motorcycle frequently. Christopher says his wife is largely responsible for me becoming an avid motorcyclist. He tells Emily his wife grew up on the back of his dad’s Harley and he wanted to join with her riding. He took the motorcycle safety course and he encourages everyone to do it if you are going to start riding. He says you learn how to handle your bike and then you gain confidence and confidence is big with anything you do in life whether it be your job or motorcycle riding.
Christopher says being a motorcycle rider makes him a better attorney because he can relate to the motorcycle clients who call in. He says please look out for the motorcyclists; riding season is upon us. He says take an extra look before you take the turn, make sure motorcyclists are not coming and please don’t text and drive.
Megan Leaderhouse, outreach coordinator at William Mattar says distracted driving is something we are going keep talking about because the less distracted you are as a driver in a vehicle, you are going to keep other people safe and keep bikers safe and even just pedestrians, you know, who may be walking their dog or riding their bicycles. Megan says some really important tips that we think are helpful for motorcycle safety awareness.
Be alert and do not drive distracted
Be aware of blind spots
If you see one motorcycle assumer there are more
Give motorcycles space
Chris Gresham says left turns across traffic are the scariest thing for motorcycles and says I try to do a move where I wobble my bike back and forth just to break the gaze of a motorist just so they see that I am coming and hold off on that turn when they cross traffic.
Megan says you have to remember it takes different maneuvers for a motorcycle compared to a vehicle. She says they also have to factor in traffic and road conditions and so again it is just being a little patient and giving them more space and time to keep everybody safe.
Megan says from our experience with helping thousands of people involved in accidents, the reason that this is so important to talk about, we have to remember that they don’t have the protection of the steel frame of a vehicle and airbags, think about things like that keep us a little safer in vehicles, they don’t have.
Christopher says the message for people who are in cars is just please understand that the motorcyclists are entitled to the road just as much as a car, but we don’t have the protection of four sides.
Megan says we tend to see very serious injuries when a motorcycle is involved and this is part of the reason why this awareness is so important to us as well as the bikers that we have at our law firm and in our family and friends so it makes it very personal to us.
For more information go to WilliamMattar.com http://Williammattar.com
716-444-4444.
