MARIETTA, Ohio (WTAP) – With the warm weather slowly making its presence known throughout the area some people may be looking forward to breaking out their bikes and motorcycles.
While this can be great fun throughout the warmer months there are some things to keep in mind to make sure you are staying safe on the roads.
Lt. Coy Lehman with the Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) says that being vigilant and obeying traffic laws are a couple of the main things to keep in mind when riding on a bike or motorcycle.
Lt. Lehman says that wearing things like reflectors and helmets will also help to ensure your safety when riding smaller vehicles like a bike or motorbike.
He also says that safety precautions aren’t limited to the drivers of these smaller vehicles, as those in cars, trucks, vans, etc. have to be vigilant as well.
“Obviously, any motors on the roadway with the with the summer months coming need to be watching out for motorcycles because again, just like a bicycle, a traffic crash between a motorcycle and a car, the motorcyclist has very little chance of walking away with no injury. “
Lt. Lehman also explains that there are a couple rules of thumb for automobile drivers to ensure they are sharing the road safely with motorcyclists.
“There’s 2 rules of thumb that you can go by. For following distances, one car length for every 10 miles per hour, so if you’re driving 50 miles an hour, make sure you’re estimating about five car lengths between you and that next vehicle. The other way that we all learned in Driver’s ED is the three to four second rule, so as the rear of the vehicle in front of you passes by a stationary object like a traffic sign or pavement line, that stationary object shouldn’t reach the front of your vehicle until three or four seconds [later], those are two good rules of thumb to make sure you’re always maintaining a safe following distance.”
Lt. Lehman says that in 2024, motorcycle crashes saw an increase of 53% since 2020 with five of those crashes being fatal.
“…we had a 53% increase last year out in Morgan and Washington County. We had 10 fatal crashes last year. In half of those, five of those are motorcycle related. Most of them, like I said, were speed related, mature driver related, and they were [usually] one vehicle crashes.”
He explains that a majority of these crashes were speed related and encourages caution when riding.
In response to the increase in motorcycle crashes, the OSHP has put together enforcement plans for this year to help heighten enforcement in target areas, and to help spread education about proper motorcycle safety.
“We’re going to be ramping up enforcement with motorcycles as a whole, concentrating on focus areas, using resources that we have like our motorcycle unit. We’re going to be using our aviation unit, and ramping up not only education for motorcycle, but specifically enforcement…The biggest months are going to be July and August…State Route 555 accounted for 25% of our motorcycle crashes last year alone, so we’re going to be looking at that route. Like I said, primarily in July and August, we’re going to be ramping up efforts on that.”
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