Safety tips aimed at big biker meet
Thursday 22nd May 2008, 11:50AM BST.
Campaigners in Shropshire have targeted hundreds of motorcyclists and delivered a warning message for them to stay safe on the county’s roads.
The safety campaign was launched last night at a renowned bike meet at Swancote, near Bridgnorth.
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It comes as figures last week revealed that there are more bikers killed and seriously injured around Bridgnorth than anywhere else in Britain.
Owner of Swancote, Steve Platt, said: “I’m hoping that the message to just stay safe will get across.
“There were five lives lost last year and we don’t want that to happen again. Anything to prevent it is a good thing. We will keep encouraging the bikers to come and will support them but by working together to make it safe we can get the best out of it.”
Constable Matt Picken, who was at the meet, said: “This is one of the biggest gatherings in the country now, we’re talking hundreds and thousands of bikes, that in itself causes quite a few concerns . . . because of the amount of complaints and accidents we have to take a robust approach.”
Andy Bevon, from Bridgnorth Fire Station, said: “We’ve had permission from the widow of a man who was killed in a motorbike accident last year to display his crashed motorbike to help prevent more tragedies.
“In Shropshire this is the first time the fire service has got involved in anything so high profile as this. Hopefully bikers will come and look at this and take notice of it.”
McIntyre Bubb, three times world champion for motorbike riding, was showing a 17-year-old youth the safety message. He said: “We’ve got to keep these youngsters alive.”
By Rachael Lowe
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Of course there are more bikers killed and injured around Bridgnorth – there are more bikers around Bridgnorth ! Surely the only meaningful statistics would be those that count the number of bike related accidents as a percentage of the number of bikes using those roads.
If 5 motorbikes make a journey along a road in Northern Scotland, and there are 2 accidents, compared to 5,000 motorbikes in Shropshire and 50 accidents, is Shropshire more dangerous???
I notice the ‘Road Safety Partnership’ has lost no time in installing mobile speed camera positions along our roads now, using the motorcyle accidents as an excuse. The fact that mobile speed cameras are unable to catch motorcycles does not appear to have affected their eagerness to pursue the poor long suffering car driver.
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