QUEASY RIDER - MOTORCYCLE MISHAPS SPIKE DURING SPRINGTIME

  • Published
  • By Tim Barela
  • Torch Magazine
RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Motorcyclist deaths have more than doubled since 1997 across the nation, hitting a record 5,091 in 2008, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Air Education and Training Command, during the last decade, lost 30 Airmen to motorcycle mishaps -- and 40 percent were killed during the spring timeframe.

The Air Force Safety Center has started a "Spring Spike Focus" aimed at curbing that trend. Safety center officials were concerned by the high number of springtime Air Force motorcycle mishaps in fiscal 2009. Seventy-seven percent of the service's springtime private motor vehicle mishap fatalities last year involved motorcycles, according to safety reports.

"During the spring, people pull their motorcycles out after a long winter 'sleep' and hit the road with rusty riding skills," said Robbie Bogard, AETC safety and occupational health specialist. "Not only that, but passenger-vehicle drivers don't have to contend with motorcycle riders nearly as much during the winter, then all of the sudden they are out in droves in spring. Drivers aren't as used to watching out for them, which leads to more collisions."

Speed and inexperience tend to be the biggest culprits when it comes to motorcycle mishaps, Bogard said.

Just last year in Tennessee, a combination of these hazards cost a 26-year-old staff sergeant his life. On April 17, he bought a new motorcycle and picked it up from the dealership at about 4 p.m. Only three hours later he was dead, leaving behind a wife and two kids, as well as grieving parents.

"Something like this is tragic," Bogard said. "The day he purchased his new bike he told his wife that the steering handled differently from his old one and that it was going to take some time to get used to it. Then, that same day, he drove it to his parents' house to show them his new ride. Along the way, he took a curve a little fast, went over the center line and hit a Ford Contour head-on."

Bogard pointed out that while history shows that younger riders will be involved in the most accidents, among motorcyclists killed nationwide in 2008, half were 40 years or older.

"So no one is exempt," he said.

"In the past 10 years, we did not have a single year where we did not experience a motorcycle fatality," Bogard said. "Our vision for this decade is to reduce motorcycle fatalities to zero."