May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month

Every day, Ride Smart Florida wants to highlight the importance of Motorcycle Safety.
Too many motorcyclists in Florida have lost their lives in motorcycle-related crashes in recent years! A motorcycle can be easily hidden in a car’s blind spots. Take an extra moment to look for motorcycles.

Look Twice For Motorcycles
Motorist actions can impact the safety of motorcyclists greatly! A large portion of motorcycle crashes involve two key components – poor speed and spatial judgment of other drivers and poor motorcyclist conspicuity.

Sharing the roads with thousands of bikers requires special attention:

• Double-check for traffic intersections before you turn or pull out.
  Always check your blind spots before changing lanes.
• Treat motorcyclists with the same respect you give other motorists.
• Leave at least a four-second distance between your car and the motorcycle in front of you. Note when a motorcycle passes any point in the road.
• When passing a motorcycle, give a full lane to the motorcycle.
• Keep a watchful eye at all times; a motorcyclist may be closer than you think.
• Don’t drive distracted! Distracted driving is anything that takes your attention away from the primary task of driving.
• Remember to yield the right-of-way to motorcyclists.

Things to do:

• Remain alert and vigilant on the roads.
• Avoid driver fatigue and the additional pressure it places on your vision.
• Avoid driver distractions and remember that the road and road users need all of your attention.
• Do not repeatedly fix your gaze for more than a couple of seconds on any single object.
• Keep your eyes moving and scan, scan, scan…!

Check out Ride Smart Florida – Improving Motorcycle Safety Throughout Florida for additional resources. 

Source: https://www.msf-usa.org/