Guadalupe County reminding drivers to use caution around motorcycles
(Seguin) — The Guadalupe County Commissioners Court is revving up its reminders about motorcycle safety and how it’s everyone’s responsibility to play it safe when hitting the open road.
In recognition of May as Motorcycle Awareness Month, local leaders have been doing their part to increase public awareness about motorcycles.
Speaking of his own experience was Commissioner Pct. 3 Michael Carpenter. Carpenter says its important that all drivers keep all drivers safe.
“I ride as well. I was out this past weekend. My wife rides with me and for anybody who is here in the courtroom or who might be watching, I’ll say this every year, there’s a lot of things that while we are on two wheels that we can avoid. There is a lot of things that we can do to protect ourselves but as the proclamation will state, we are largely unprotected on two wheels and one of the nightmares that we have when we ride is somebody not paying attention, taking a left turn in front of us. We can avoid an awful lot of things. Those are incredibly difficult. I missed one by about three inches several years ago and it was scary and it did test my willingness to ride so watch out for motorcycles especially on your left turns,” said Carpenter.
Applauding the county for encouraging safety around motorcycle riders was Jerry Ramirez. Ramirez is the president of the Brothers in Arms Motorcycle Club, Seguin Chapter, the only Texas chapter for the national organization.
“As you know we have a lot more motorcycles here in Texas. We rank fifth in the nation behind obviously California, Florida because of the population numbers but we have quite a bit of riders here in Texas is and unfortunately, we rank fifth in the nation for motorcycle fatalities and a lot of that has to do with we ride more time during the year. We have beautiful weather down here in South Central Texas so there is a couple of weeks throughout the year, we don’t ride so we are on the roads more often than some of these other states and unfortunately, that comes with that number of riders on the road. That unfortunate statistic,” said Ramirez.
Ramirez says having this type of support locally is vital to saving lives.
“TxDOT does do a lot to bring awareness to motorcycles on the roads. You see the marquees all over San Antonio and then surrounding areas and a lot of campaigns, ‘Look Twice for Motorcycles’ and that kind of stuff and we appreciate that but along with that when you have government, city governments, county governments take the time to do things like this, it really helps us out. It really brings awareness about motorcycles to the community so I really appreciate you doing this for us. Thank you very much,” said Ramirez.
1In its continued support of Motorcycle Awareness Month, county commissioners approved a proclamation that recognized not only safety but also the Brothers in Arms Motorcycle Club which continues to support veterans and other worthwhile charities throughout the community.