The Think! Motorcycle Safety Campaign is based in the United Kingdom and helps to encourage drivers in urban environments to "THINK! Take longer to look for bikes" through TV and radio ads. Riders are simultaneously reminded how to make sure they are seen via an outdoor poster campaign. While we at HelmetHead Cycle Gear™ are not trying in any way to imitate others safety campaigns or site design, our fundamentals do remain the same and we will be striving to find new content for this page to make the general public, both motorcyclists and non-motorcyclists alike, aware of the dangers of being on a motorcycle and how to take preventive measures.
We encourage all riders to take a M.S.F. riding skills course. For the course nearest you, call the Motorcycle Safety Foundation at 1-800-446-9227.
If you feel that you have some relevant information, photos, stories or any other type of material which we may post here, please send them to our media coordinator: jharris@helmetheadcyclegear.com.
The highest statistical accident for a Motorcyclist, as you know, is a left turner violating the Motorcyclist "legal right of way". The "left turner" is always going to say, "didn't see the Motorcyclist". Maybe some don't but I don't believe all of them don't.
We people all have a "sub-conscious" mind. So, some "left turners" are going to consciously or "sub-consciously" assume that anyone on a small vehicle, like a "Motorcycle", are going to avoid hitting the turner's much larger vehicle. The car drivers that have never ridden a Motorcycle know nothing about stopping a Motorcycle. Many right turners do the same thing. They look left, see a Motorcyclist, and still turn right assuming that anyone on a vehicle that small will avoid hitting the turner's much larger vehicle.
So, it is a good idea to warn new Motorcycle buyers that they should never trust that a left or right turner is going to obey the law.
It is time to remind auto drivers that only 5 seconds can, many times, "save a life". If they see a Motorcyclist approaching the intersection and sacrifice just a few seconds to let the Motorcyclist clear the intersection, they may have just saved one.
I produce some post cards that remind drivers of this. If I gave one away a month, and everybody who received one gave one away a month, in 26 months 33,554,432 auto drivers would have been reminded that 5 seconds can save a life.
The following email came through to me and I wanted to share it with everybody:
This is crazy! Kind of disturbing until you read the last line.
A truck was traveling down the highway at around 1 o'clock in the morning near Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Motorcyclist was traveling at ~ 120 mph and ran into the back of the moving semi-truck.
Truck driver said he felt the impact, and it took almost a 1/4 mile for him to pull over.
This is what he found...
He lived. Wear your helmet!
Edit: We found out that we were drastically wrong in the previous paragraph. We received the previous info via an email scam. The painful truth is
that he did in fact, die... It only makes sense. Be safe. THINK!
HelmetHead Cycle Gear™ would like to give special thanks to Ted Sackett and Nigel Bowers for their contributions to our growing THINK! Safety campaign.
