Especially since the weather has warmed up for the summer, May is an appropriate time to celebrate Motorcycle Awareness Month.
To commemorate the occasion, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, announced it through its Traffic Safety Marketing unit and published some important information.
What is motorcycle awareness?
The information NHTSA provides reminds drivers that motorcycle awareness is much more than simply following traffic laws.
Motorists always should follow traffic laws, drive at a reasonable speed, and avoid aggressive behavior like rushing through yellow lights or following too closely.
Likewise, distracted, drowsy and drunken or drugged driving are always dangerous both for motorcyclists and those in other vehicles.
In addition, drivers need to understand how motorcycles are different from cars and should adjust their driving accordingly.
- Because they are smaller, motorcycles are harder to spot. For example, motorcyclists may get forced to drive in a car’s blind spots, which are much more extensive than, say, when a full-sized vehicle is close to another car.
- Motorcyclists may have to downshift or swerve for reasons that other drivers might not even consider. The point is a motorcycle might change speed or direction with little or no warning. This is one reason why it is so important to give motorcyclists plenty of following distance.
- It can be hard to judge the distance between a motorcycle and a car and equally hard to determine the speed of a motorcycle. It is risky to try to cross in front of one, even if the driver thinks there is enough time to do so.
Simply put, Louisiana drivers have to take some extra steps to avoid motorcycle accidents.
Injuries from motorcycle accidents are often catastrophic
Without the right awareness and caution, a driver in the Baton Rouge area may either collide with a motorcycle or force the motorcyclist off the road or off their bike.
Either way, even when the motorcyclists wears proper protection, catastrophic injuries are too often the end result. Injured motorcyclists frequently suffer debilitating brain injuries and spinal cord injuries as well as other serious, and costly, trauma.