Edmond safety course goes statewide
Edmond police receive $150,000 grant to expand motorcycle course
BY DIANA BALDWIN
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Published: November 4, 2009
EDMOND — The number of Oklahoma motorcyclists killed in eight years has increased by 258 percent since 2000, Edmond police Lt. Bob Pratt said.
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• Interested in participating in the statewide civilian motorcycle course or "Share the Ride” program?
Call Sgt. Scott Fees, 359-4444.
• Interested in Edmond’s fall civilian motorcycle course Saturday?
A few spots are available. Call officer Randy Payne, 359-4437.
In 2000, 24 motorcyclists were killed on Oklahoma roadways. The deaths increased to 86 in 2008.
Those deaths are the reason behind Edmond officers receiving a $150,000 grant to take their civilian motorcycle course across the state.
The federal money is being awarded through the Oklahoma Highway Safety Office.
Edmond police first offered a motorcycle course for more experienced riders in 1978.
The free course, offered twice a year, has trained hundreds of Edmond motorcyclists.
Grant money will go to purchase a truck and trailer to be used for a mobile classroom, 2 motorcycles and overtime pay for the officers to travel across the state to teach motorcyclists.
Inexperience, alcohol and not wearing the proper equipment, such as a helmet, are the three major reasons people are killed riding motorcycles, safety records show.
In 2008, Pratt said 73 percent of the people who were killed were not wearing a helmet.
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National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officials looked at the percentages and said we need to do something,” Pratt said.
Edmond’s course does not prepare the rider to get a motorcycle license.
"What we do is take the driver that has been riding a while and teach them a better way,” Pratt said. "What we teach is what police motorcycle officers learn.”
A new program, "Share the Road,” designed to educate other drivers about what motorcyclists are experiencing will also be part of the statewide program.
"We want to talk to people who don’t ride motorcycles and let them know the challenges facing a motorcyclist,” Pratt said.
For example, vehicle drivers need to know how important it is not to run up close to the back of a motorcycle going through a construction zone because the motorcyclist has more to concentrate on because of the uneven road conditions, Pratt said.
A statewide program has been a goal for Pratt.
"This has mushroomed larger than anything we thought could happen,” Pratt said. "When we started this, I thought, ‘What if we could take this across the state.’ Now, 30 years later it has come to fruition.”
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On the other hand, for the general safety of the public there are valid reasons to put in place restrictions on the ability of an individual to do whatever they want, whenever they want, however they want to do it.
I agree that a drivers license should be enough for a person to operate a motorcycle on a public street. The same rules of the road apply to both vehicles and the motorcycle does not present a greater threat to public safety than a car/truck/SUV.
I can think of two areas where we currently don't have licensing and I think could use it. Any a$$hole can go buy a boat and take it out on a public lake and then drive it 100 MPH without ever demonstrating that they know how to operate it properly or know the "rules of the road" on water.
I also think people should be required to demonstrate the ability to properly handle firearms before they are allowed to own them. This license should be free of course, but everyone should know how to load/unload and fire a gun before being turned loose on the public with it.
I was unable to figure out what this means "the supine, craven kow-towing"!
As doug said, it feels like when your riding a MC everyone in a car is trying to kill you!
I would bet they do pull people over for having "no-light", but outside of writting them a 30 to 40 dollar fix it ticket what are they suppose to do?
I think there needs to be more interest in teaching those driving vehicles such as watching out better for those on motorcycles. People just do not pay attention when they drive a car. I mean seriously, do they not teach drivers not to tailgate on ice and snow and when it rains, do they not teach you to get out of the fast lane when someone flashes their lights at you to move over, do they not teach you to turn your blinker on before you turn not as you are turning, do they not teach you to drive in the slow lane and not the passing lane. We have so many people driving that really need more learning. Running a red light is not an option. I would take that money and pay more police but then I have seen them even do all this without regard to the laws.
When I was a teenager, your drivers license was your "motorcycle license." This was proper, and as it should have been.
Now, thanks to the improper influence of the insurance lobby, the fee-driven greed of state agencies, and the supine, craven kow-towing to such big government rent-seeking by a supposedly "conservative" Republican Oklahoma legislature to these forces, that freedom is no more.