2019 December

by Gary Klinker

I guess since we have already seen snow it must be winter. Maybe now the motorcycle fatalities will stop before the end of the year. Last count I have seen is 83 motorcyclists have died on Wisconsin highways. Thanks to Tim Tomann, ABATE keeps track of all of them. He is even ahead of state reports much of the time. Just this past week in my county a rider died when he hit a deer. From the information I have found there were eight deer hit fatalities on bikes as of this writing. At last week’s Wisconsin Motorcycle Safety Program Fall Wrap-up we were told that 85% of the motorcyclist fatalities were caused by the rider’s behavior. This could be due to riding impaired, speed, failure to make a curve, hitting another object or vehicle, or some other factor that could have been controlled by the rider. Lack of an M endorsement is a big number in the fatalities too. Though lack of an endorsement is not necessarily a factor in a crash, it shows that the rider was not concerned enough to get a license or have training. It is an attitude of how committed a person is to be riding. This should be a wake-up call to all of us who are committed to our way of life. If you know someone who rides without a license, pressure them to get one. If you know someone who is not a good enough rider encourage them to get training or at least give them pointers. Another way to get the point across is to refuse to ride with people like that. Remember, their behavior is making all of us look bad and causing us to have to defend ourselves from more regulation. If fatalities were cut by that 85%, we would look like heroes.

As I mentioned last week was the WMSP Fall Wrap-up. It was a good year for the program. There are some changes coming for next season that we will be working on. December 7th is the Safe Rider scheduling meeting, so look for our new schedule around the first of the year. We will be doing some more of the 3 Wheel BRC Can-am courses again next season. Along with that we will focus the BRC2 classes on License Waiver courses. They are much better received than the Skills Practice courses. If you have a regional group that would like a skills course, plan early and let me know what date you would like so we can plan for it. During the 2019 season Safe Rider trained 203 students, an increase over last season.

With the weather turning bad and deer season ending, it should keep me inside to work on the part of Safe Rider that is the hardest for me – the paperwork and forms. I know it must be done so I’ll stick to it and have everything ready for Spring. I want to again thank all who took classes and all our Rider Coaches for a good year.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and a safe deer season.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a safe New Year.

Ride Safe,

Gary