Yesterday I received an early morning call from the Associated Press (AP) for a "Florida Bikers" response to the recent NTSN (National Transportation Safety Board) recommendations. So I get all my little facts together, rush to meet the dude and get the job done. So this morning I search the web, to the best of my ability anyway. And cant find not only my interview but hardly any interviews with motorcyclists presenting the opposite side of the story. In fact, online anyway I couldn't even find where the Tallahassee Democrat mentioned the NTSB release.
"What I have found plastered all over the net is an AP story done by a Ken Sheppard (one here) of various lengths. And other short permutations of the noted story. Note the Biker Response included in the story linked above: "If a truck pulls out in front of you and runs a stop sign, how is that helmet going to prevent an accident?" asked Steve Rector, state coordinator for ABATE Iowa, a motorcycle rights' group. He also noted that motorcycle registrations and the number of miles traveled by motorcyclists have increased in recent years." (Which is true)
Which the writer follows with: "Judith Lee Stone, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said there was "no scientific evidence that motorcycle rider training reduces crash risk and is an adequate substitute for an all-rider helmet law."
What???? What the hell do those paragraphs have to do with each other.
My comments were about the statistical inaccuracies of the reports, stiffer penalties, right of way violations, the increasing numbers of cell phones on the road and the continued myopic, tunnel vision focus on "helmets' as the "cure all" panacea to reduce motorcycle fatalities.
As long as the government keeps regurgitating the same old lies. And the media keeps swallowing the bait, hook, line and sinker abandoning there constitutional duty to "question" government as opposed to "parroting it" the killing fields will become killing mountains built on the bones of bikers (helmeted or otherwise) who were taken out by selfish negligence.
I did check our state MRO website (ABATE) searching for a statement from their president "Doc" Reichenbach re the released recommendations. his latest comments that I could find from the state SMRO president were relating to the last state meeting and begin with, "I want to immediately thank West Coast for hosting a great meeting and thank you to the Hooters ladies for serving lunch. This meeting had to have been one of the best ever. Business was taken care of in record time and even with lunch it was less than three hours............................"
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