Time to start watching for motorcycles

One of the local harbingers of springtime is the sound of motorcycles on our roads. As a motorcyclist I eagerly await conditions favorable to finally awaken my machine from its winter slumber, to go riding in fresh air and vernal warmth.

So as a rider I wish to remind you motorists to increase your vigilance of my fellow two wheeled riders. It is time to be looking for and seeing motorcycles. You don't want to use these for deadly words - "I didn't see him."

We motorcyclists are harder to see and are much more vulnerable than automobiles and trucks. It may be hard to judge our speed, since we are a smaller object. With regard to collisions between motorcycles and cars, a recent study found that car drivers were at fault more than 60 percent of the time.

Please keep a safe interval and don't tailgate. Be aware that a motorcycle may have to swerve to avoid an obstacle in the road which a car can straddle. You need to be extra alert not only for other motorists who may be texting or talking on their cellphones, but now that spring is here, you must also be extra alert for myself and fellow motorcyclists.

When you see a motorcyclist in motion, see more than the motorcycle - see the person under the helmet who might be a friend, neighbor, or relative.

Robert Hawkinson

Wheaton