US MILITARY FORCES MAKE SPECIAL TRAINING MANDATORY FOR MOTORCYCLE RIDERS - PHILADELPHIA MOTORCYCLE LAWYER, JEFFREY REIFF, SALUTES THESE EFFORTS
According to a recent article published by the New York Times on Sunday, October 26, 2008, so many members of the armed forces have been dying on motorcycles and sports bikes like the Ninja that the Navy and Marines have made special training mandatory. In just one weekend in September, the Navy lost four men in sport bike accidents.
As I have noted before in my blog, you can go out and purchase a motorcycle from a showroom floor without even having a motorcycle license to buy it or without having any special training. Some of the Ninja bikes will attain speeds of almost 200 mph. In the last 12 months, 50 of 58 sailors and marines killed on motorcycles were operating on such said sports bikes which are much faster than their cruiser counterparts. The Army also lost 36 soldiers on sport bike accidents in the same time period.
In just the last month in our law practice, which specializes in catastrophic personal injury accidents with an emphasis on motorcycle accidents, we noticed a tremendous amount of accidents with people under age 30 who are first time purchasers and have limited experience riding motorcycles. According to Tracy Martin who runs a private riding program aimed at high performance motorcycles, Air Force safety officials predict the military person most likely to die next is a male under the age of 25, working in maintenance, who has a sport bike and owns it less than a month. A direct correlation with those individuals represented by our law firm over the past 25 years. (New York Times article)
The military has imposed stricter motorcycle regulations than imposed on normal civilians. To take a motorcycle on base, riders must have at least passed a beginner’s course offered by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and must also wear helmets, regardless of state law. The military is attempting to teach new riders about safety issues such as risk assessment and practice cornering and braking. Unfortunately, many of the individuals in the military go overseas, get into combat, come back and are killed on motorcycles. Harley Davidson has a saying “Ride to live and live to ride”. Anyone who has been an avid motorcycle rider can attest to the adrenaline rush that comes from attaining high speeds on the open road.
I recently met with a client who sustained catastrophic injuries and totaled a motorcycle worth in excess of $60,000. His wife plead with him not to get back on another motorcycle and he told me that he just simply needs the rush to get away from the pressures of everyday living, as well as domestic squabbles. He told me that riding his bike was the only way to clear his head and he did not care if he died on his bike because he was doing what he loved. Military officials theorize that when people return from a war zone, they turn to the sport bikes for the same adrenaline rush. Of the 17,000 estimated sport bike riders in the Navy and Marines, only roughly 1,600 have taken the new safety course. There has been much talk of government intervention limiting beginners to smaller motorcycles. At any rate, as I have noted earlier, compared to drivers and passengers in cars, trucks and buses, motorcycle riders and their passengers only have protective gear and clothing to protect them from the impact of colliding with a motor vehicle. Many motorcycles involved in accidents tend to suffer catastrophic injuries or death. Motorcycles by their design offer many safety issues with the driver.
The law firm of Reiff and Bily salutes the efforts by the military to implement a motorcycle safety program. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has long maintained a motorcycle safety program which teaches the operator basic skills necessary to operate a motorcycle. For more information on how you can reduce your chance of injury or death while operating a motorcycle, please look at my blog dated September 24, 2008.
Since 1979, the Pennsylvania motorcycle accident lawyers and the Philadelphia personal injury lawyers of Reiff and Bily represented many motorcyclists who have been seriously injured or killed in motorcycle accidents in Pennsylvania and throughout the United States. Principal and founding attorney, Jeffrey Reiff, has been a motorcyclist since age 13 and has provided groundbreaking theories of liability and participated in numerous motorcycle safety and legal forums. He has taught operator safety.
Philadelphia personal injury attorney, Jeffrey Reiff, and the experienced personal injury lawyers at the motorcycle accident law firm of Reiff and Bily have worked with highly specialized experts in reconstructing and prosecuting motorcycle cases, as well as motorcycle product liability cases. The Pennsylvania motorcycle accident lawyers at Reiff and Bily understand motorcycle accident law and understand motorcycles and know how to review and prove damages, establish legal responsibility, establish how much financial recovery your injuries warrant and how to collect the financial settlement or judgment that you properly deserve.
Our attorneys will handle every aspect of your case so that you can focus on recovering from your motorcycle injuries. We have an outstanding record of successful outcomes from our motorcycle injury clients with references available. Please contact us today at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com to request a free consultation with one of our experienced motorcycle accident lawyers.
