On a more somber note today, I’m sure you’ve all heard of the tragic death of Bob Barry, Jr., sports director at KFOR in Oklahoma City. For any of you who may be reading this and are not familiar with the name, Bob Barry, Jr., and his father, Bob Barry, Sr. were icons in terms of Oklahoma sports broadcasting and reporting. Our condolences to his family.
Making this particularly tragic is the fact that he died in a motorcycle accident caused by an unlicensed driver making an illegal U turn. Barry’s bike slammed into the driver’s side door. I find this particularly egregious since I ride too. I know, I know, motorcycle riding is by its very nature inherently dangerous. If you choose to ride a bike, you have to accept a certain amount of risk. Collisions with four-wheeled vehicles will never end well. I’ve t-boned a car that ran a red light (I never hurt so bad in my life) and then two years ago on a BRAND NEW bike, I was rear ended by a guy who just wasn’t paying attention and even admitted he wasn’t paying attention (I wanted to beat the guy to death with my helmet, but I was pinned under the bike). And I can tell you that close calls are nearly a daily event…people changing lanes nearly on top of you, cars suddenly darting out from a side street, and my favorite, I’m in the right lane and a guy swerves into the side of the road to pass me on the right spraying me with gravel and dirt as he went past. Dumbasses abound…the important thing is to constantly be on the lookout for them. And it isn’t always the motorists, I’ve seen dummies on bikes too…everybody wants to be an outlaw biker. When we were living in Northern Virginia, it was particularly bad. There were a lot of young kids coming back from overseas duty in Iraq or Afghanistan with a pocket full of cash and the first thing they would do is go out and buy something on the order of a Hayabusa and punch themselves into a highway retaining wall somewhere at 150mph. Or, some maniac would run them off the road or challenge a light and basically run over them. A long time ago I started thinking about ways to get motorists to pay closer attention to what the hell they’re doing…make them look for motorcycles. I came up with a scheme that might work, though I realize that getting the morons at 2300 North Lincoln Blvd to do anything that doesn’t involve their getting kickbacks from the oil/gas sector or proposing legislation to criminalize rampant masturbation means it’s dead on arrival. But still… So my idea is to start holding drivers of vehicles accountable, particularly in cases where the motorcyclist is killed. Here’s a sketch of how this would work: First, you have to run some sort of public education campaign about what the new motorcycle safety law means for them personally. I realize that translates into money which HRH Mary of Fallin has declared a scarce state resource, but maybe, just maybe the news outlets around the state would be willing to carry spots on TV and radio, and ads in papers as a public service. Maybe drive it into motorists’ brains (pun intended) that it takes a motorcycle twice the distance to get stopped. Once the law is implemented here is how I think it might work: First offense vehicle driver is at fault for a collision with a motorcycle, but there is no debilitating injury or death. Mandatory road safety course (at least 40 hours) and a $1,000 fine. First offense when the driver is at fault for a collision with a motorcycle with debilitating injury or death. One month suspended driver’s license, $5000 fine, mandatory road safety course. In either case on a first offense, if the driver of the vehicle is impaired (drugs or alcohol), mandatory jail time (30 days), one year license suspension, $10,000 fine, plus whatever comes with the DUI/DWI charges. Subsequent at-fault offense with no debilitating injury or death. Three days jail time, three months suspended license, $5,000 fine. Subsequent at-fault offense with debilitating injury or death. Charge with manslaughter and whatever sentencing comes with that, six months suspended license, $10,000 fine. Subsequent at-fault offense with impaired driver. Charge them with murder. At a minimum they lose their license for good. I’m not law enforcement, nor am I an attorney (though I do watch a lot of Law & Order) so I’m certain there’s a lot of reasons you can’t do something like this. Or, who knows, maybe this stuff is already on the books…if it is, I don’t think it’s being enforced. I’m also not so naïve as to believe there’s a prayer for getting the dummies on North Lincoln Blvd to do anything about this. They would be trying to figure ways to slide other legislation inside this bill to ensure that their “donors” will be able to frack away in the great state of Oklahoma until there isn’t a drop of potable water to be found anywhere. And while I’m at it. Allow me to take a swipe at those bikers who prefer not to wear a helmet as you’re pushing your scooter down that long stretch of highway at 90+ mph (trust me, I’ve done it). If you’ve never seen what pavement can do to an unprotected human skull as it bounces off and slides down the road, I do pray you’ll never experience that firsthand. I can tell you, it ain’t pretty. Protect yourselves, Brothers and Sisters…them cars is out to get us. Comments are closed.
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