Cumbria police motorcyclist road safety operation resurrected
Last updated at 15:58, Wednesday, 29 August 2012
CUMBRIA Police have resurrected an operation which aims to target motorcyclists who have a disregard for the safety of other road uses and themselves.
Motorcyclists represent only one percent of all road traffic, yet account for 21% of all road deaths in great Britain. To date this year, there have been 105 injury collisions in Cumbria involving a motorcycle (around 3 per week). In July alone, there were ten serious or fatal collisions, seven of which involved a motorcycle.
In an aim to tackle this, Cumbria's Roads Policing Unit is stepping up their awareness campaign to make motorcyclists and other roads users aware of the dangers of driving in a unsafe manner and that any risk could cost a life.
Advanced Police motorcyclists within RPU currently successfully operate "Bikesafe" events throughout the year with the assistance of the institute of advanced motorists (IAM) as an educational tool to improve rider behaviour and reduce collisions on our roads networks. With the continual high percentage and unacceptable level of motorcyclists involved in collisions, Operation "Focus", a force wide enforcement campaign has been re invoked to specifically target and enforce offences against those motorcyclists who disregard the safety of other road users and themselves.
Inspector Andy Wilkinson said: “From the 1 September police officers across the county will be specifically targeting priority locations in a concentrated effort to affect driver and rider behaviour through enforcement and education in an effort to reduce the collisions involving motorcyclists.
“This is not merely a matter of prosecuting all motorcyclists or drivers for minor offences, this is a positive response addressing a serious problem of members of the public losing their lives or receiving life changing injuries on our roads.
“We wish to encourage all road users to pay particular attention to motorcyclists, who are more vulnerable on our roads, and encourage the reporting of any intelligence or information of particular incidents of careless or dangerous riding or driving so they may be investigated.”
Anyone who would like further information can visit either: www.Bikesafe.co.uk or www.cumbria.police.uk
First published at 15:57, Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk
I suggest readers carry on with this article until they get to the words of Inspector Andy Wilkinson which puts a rather different spin on the exercise: "From the 1 September police officers across the county will be specifically targeting priority locations in a concentrated effort to affect **DRIVER AND RIDER** behaviour through enforcement and education in an effort to reduce the collisions involving motorcyclists.
âThis is not merely a matter of prosecuting all motorcyclists or drivers for minor offences, this is a positive response addressing a serious problem of members of the public losing their lives or receiving life changing injuries on our roads.âWe wish to encourage **ALL ROAD USERS** to pay **PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO MOTORCYCLISTS, who are more vulnerable on our roads, and encourage the reporting of any intelligence or information of particular incidents of careless or dangerous RIDING OR DRIVING so they may be investigated.âSo, far from a clampdown on dangerous motorcycle riding as your writer suggests, the police view is that it's a balanced operation which recognises that motorcyclists are often the victim of other drivers' miscalculations, and that the majority of motorcycle accidents that involve other vehicles are NOT the motorcyclist's fault. As an motorcycle instructor who works closely with Kent Fire and Rescue on a rider safety initiative that has the specific aim of giving riders the skills and knowledge to avoid no-fault collisions with car drivers it's depressing to see such an ill-written and frankly anti-motorcycle article. Cumbria is a lovely place for motorcycling (and driving) but sadly there's nothing like press bias against motorcycles for making a shock-horror story out of a routine operation.Kevin Williams / Survival Skills Rider TrainingView all 3 comments on this article
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Fair enough some bikers get the majority a bad name and truely deserve all that comes their way but i have never seena biker riding using a mobile? this type of action by 4 wheeled drivers is at epidemic levels and needs to be targeted not devils bridge on a sunday--absolutely disgusting no wonder plod gets no respect!!
Posted by mike on 30 August 2012 at 14:58