Thank the goddess you aint in Wales.
The local councils specialise in adverse cambers and blind bends.
You can hardly go for a walk without finding a damaged biker and bike in the hedges.
Having met a few, they are mostly bitter old men seeking solace in their twilight years. I sometimes think they crash solely for the attention.
Here i go again no doubt about to get shot down in flames!
I live in the Yorkshire Dales when i am home, and we know around here that as soon as the sunshines come on Saturday and Sunday afternoon all we are going to hear is the sound of roaring motorbikes closely followed by the sirens of police,fire and ambulance as they have to be scraped up off the roads with the rabbits and badgers.
The problem in my opinion is (here we go) its not the real bikers who cause the problems and accidents its the weekend bikers,whom go out and buy a buke far too powerful for them to handle,keep it in a garage 9 months of the year all clean and sparkly then when the sun comes out decide to go out for a burn,totally unpractised and mostly unsafe.
Its easy up here to spot the old hands who even though still going too fast are safe and courteous to drivers, they are the ones who hang out in your mirrors so you can see them and when you move over a little to the edge to let them pass they give you a wave.
I wont be home this summer so will miss it but i can guarantee to you that a particular stretch of the A65 will have at least 5 motorcycle deaths between May and August.
I just wish them all well and safe journeys and to just think about the poor men and women who have to scrape them up and tell their famillies.
I actually have a friend who left Cheshire Fire Service because he was traumatised by all the road traffic accidents he had to deal with. He was fine fighting fires and obviously in training it was explained that the fire service is called on in accidents to use cutting equipment etc. I just don't think he realised quite how many mangled cars and bikes he'd be dealing with.
On the upside RTA's are reducing nationally. This leaves many people on Dialysis and all other side effects of organs failing, with no transplants available.
another report
looks at RTA's in some detail...
I think it is safe to say that bikers, if they are the cause of all this destruction, are only likely to be killing themselves and perhaps a pillion. As terrible as that is it isn't quite as bad as totalling a bus or several lanes of traffic when jack knifing.
I have ridden a bike on and off for 20 years. One of those was continuous all year round use for 7 years.. the others have been 3/4 years (all year round)
I ride safely and I ride well, the only people that have ever put me in any danger are the car drivers who own the road and resent my maneovureability.
On a serious note I'm a hardened wizened old biker myself. I just wanted to pick on a minority for a change.
There is I feel a world of difference between motorcycling responsibly and being a tit. The guys on Wrotham hill are invariably tits, from what I have observed. How you can drive your bike into a hedge and not be charged with careless or dangerous driving I don't know.
There is no excuse for flouting the law regarding the safe use of motor vehicles. The sooner speeding becomes as socially acceptable as drink driving the better.
In 2003 there were about 1000 people a day injured in road traffic accidents and 10 deaths according to the DOT. I think that's way too many. Mind you its not as sad as the 20 people a day who choose suicide and succeed.
I have believed for a long time that part of the test to drive a car should involve being trained on a motorcycle with a view to improving the general road awareness of car drivers.
I just got back from a few hours out on my bike in the countryside i'm
A. Still alive.
B. Have no points on my License from speeding.
C. pleased as punch so ride on such a nice day.
I also ride my back on the crappy wet days when I communute into London.
There are many bikers out there I dont feel all should be tarred with the same brush.
Happy Riding
Reacher