Getting out and enjoying everything that Killeen and the great State of Texas have to offer on your motorcycle is one of life’s great pleasures. Unfortunately, however, when you are on your bike, you are far more vulnerable to being seriously injured in an accident that is caused by another driver’s negligence. Making safety your top priority every time you head out on your bike is always the best policy.
When You Ride
When you are on your bike, there are wide-ranging factors that leave you far more vulnerable than the occupants of other vehicles are to being seriously injured in an accident. Consider all the following:
When you are on your bike, you take up less space on the road, which makes you more difficult to see and which makes it easier for you to get lost in another driver’s blind spot.
Because you do have a much smaller profile on your bike, it is more difficult for other motorists to accurately assess your speed and your distance from them, which leaves you especially vulnerable in intersections.
Your bike’s light weight and the fact that you are tethered to the road by only two wheels leaves you more likely to lose contact with the road and leaves you more vulnerable to poorly maintained roads, to debris-strewn roads, and to roads made dangerous by bad weather.
Unlike the occupants of other vehicles who have the vehicle’s shell to protect them, you have only your helmet and gear to protect you from the immense impact of an accident.
Because your bike is more lightweight, it requires less time and distance to come to a safe stop, which can leave you vulnerable to rear-end accidents when other motorists fail to leave enough distance between you.
Regardless of your vulnerabilities when you are on your motorcycle, every motorist who shares the road with you owes you the same duty of care that they owe everyone else on the road, and this includes being on the lookout for you and accommodating your safe passage by closely adhering to the rules of the road.
Driver Negligence Endangers Motorcyclists
All too often, motorcycle accidents are caused by the negligence of other drivers, and this negligence can take any of the following life-threatening forms:
Driver distraction
Driver impairment (by alcohol and/or drugs)
Driver exhaustion
Driver aggression
Excess speed