Dealing with the Police, EMT’s, Medical Personnel and Insurance Companies/Agencies, after a Motorcycle Accident

Depending on the severity of the accident you might find yourself dealing with the RCMP or another police force, ambulance/fire personnel, hospital personnel, insurance company and adjusters, lawyers, towing companies, physio therapists and a whole host of people.

Too often, far too often, I get letters and calls from riders who have had horrible experiences. They get called organ donors or the first thing a police officer looks at is your helmet to make sure its DOT approved – and has an attitude that you are just a dirty biker. I don’t know why there is such prejudice, but it’s there and we have to deal with it.

Dealing with insurance adjusters – they are NOT on your side – remember that, they are representing the insurance company…not you.

Tow truck drivers can also be very pigheaded to deal with and often times have little regard for your motorcycle – lodging complaints with the towing company and the insurance company will help ensure that if there are too many complaints, that towing company will get dropped or they will fire the offending driver to keep the contract.

It’s a lot of work fighting for your life, your health and your rights. You have to protect your interests and unfortunately sometimes that means getting a lawyer involved.

Depending on your situation, one of the first things you or someone who can work for you like a family member or spouse needs to do is get you an injury and or criminal lawyer. Some times the best and only way to look after your rights is having a lawyer guide you.

Keep your mouth shut and write down everything you can. Keep a journal that clearly says on it “MY (Your Name) PRIVATE JOURNAL” then no one but your lawyer is entitled to see what is written there.

Document EVERYTHING - how you are feeling, who visits you, when your medications change, which Dr is looking after you – document everything that you can – then when your memory fails you – or if your lawyer needs information about something, you have something to fall back on. AGAIN - Make sure the Journal says it is Your Private Journal – protect yourself.

If anyone you don’t know comes to your room at the hospital and starts asking questions that make you uncomfortable – don’t answer them, ask them for a card or info and then tell them you are too tired and need to go to sleep – then write down their name and info so that your lawyer has it.

PROTECT YOURSELF!

Have you ever heard of the Alliance for Injured Motorcyclists of Canada? Her is the link to their brand new web site which is still under construction (AIM-Can) Here is the link to the old web site....http://www.aimcan.com/

Have you had an accident with your motorcycle?

What was your experience like?

How were you treated?

Do you have any advice to pass on?

Talk to me….

Stay safe, by riding like everyone around you is blind and can't see you, stay hydrated and PLEASE, use respect with that right hand.

Belt Drive Betty

Preventing Motorcycle Accidents

Every day I see the tragic and sad news of riders who are killed and critically injured in motorcycle accidents in the news feeds.

Some accidents are caused by rider error.

Some are caused by rider stupidity like stunting and excessive speed.

Some by inattentive motorists, mostly left hand turn accidents and right of way violations some are cause by wild life and others are caused because either the rider or the motorists were partaking in the wild life.

Yes motorcycle accidents are on the rise.

The reason for this increase is: our community has grown, and the growth has been huge in the last 10 years.

Here in Canada we are pushing the 600,000 rider mark for registered for highway use bikes, up from just over 300,000 only 10 short years ago!

Another reason; There are more automobiles on the road now than there were 10 short years ago.

The more people riding motorcycles, the better the chance some one will have an accident. It’s the law of averages. There are ways to reduce the number of accidents.

Advance rider training is one tool.

Driver education campaigns would be another.

Graduated Licensing might come in to the mix here as well.

I know that we can not legislate the stupid out of people any more than we can drive the testosterone factor out of some. But for those who do want to be better riders, for those who do want to be able to live to be 80 and still be riding….

If “Advanced Rider Training” were more widely available and more affordable, would you take a course?

Have you seen the Ride Like a Pro DVD Series?

If you haven’t, this series just might be something you should consider purchasing.

Educating yourself on the techniques that can help you be the best and safest rider you can be and is one tool in the effort to promote safer riding for all.

(If you check it out and decide to buy, remember if you tell Jerry I sent you, you will save $5.)

Driver awareness – I drive a car and a bike. Until I started riding, I was like so many other motorists – busy in my car doing everything but paying attention to the most important task at hand – driving.

I would like to think that I have become a better, more patient and attentive automobile driver than before.

There are a much larger number of motor vehicles on the road than there are bikes and most of them are in the ignorance stage of driving and by that I mean, they have no clue how dangerous the weapon they are driving really is and so they are busy doing other things besides paying attention to their driving or surroundings.

Until they are affected by an accident, they won’t think about them much. Sad, but that is human nature – we don’t really care about anything until we ourselves are impacted.

Impaired drivers and riders – this is an issue that terrifies me and is amongst the hardest to curb.

Because in most cases you are dealing with an addiction – the potential for repeat offenders is higher and education seems to serve little by way of results until the person gets help to quit drinking or doing drugs.

So....What are your thoughts…

How can we as a community become more proactive?

How can we spread the word “Live to Ride – Ride to Live”?

How can we stay safe out there and what is the right mix of tactics?

Your thoughts, ideas and opinions are very much welcomed by me!

In the news feeds today - "Parliamentarians are considering whether the Conservative government should create a list of banned criminal organizations -- starting with the Hells Angels -- just as terrorist organizations are officially blacklisted"

Although the wheels of government move slowly, this act by parliament could see the Hells Angels days numbered in Canada...Do you have an opinion on this topic? I'd be very interested in your thoughts on the Government "having the Hells Angels declared illegal."

If you are amongst the lucky and riding today, please use respect with that throttle hand, stay hydrated and ride like everyone around you is blind and can't see you!

Belt Drive Betty

Drinking and riding...your thoughts are wanted!

I sure have been enjoying the dialogue with my Face book network from our last couple of days!
I love it when people tell me what's on their minds and in their hearts. Sharing is so vital to keeping our community strong and informed!

So much going on today - where to start!

HawgZotic in Langley is holding their Grande Opening July 25th & 26th and Jason Pohl of OCC Fame will be their special guest! Check out your BDB Club Newsletter for all of the details because if you want to meet this man and go for a BBQ and a ride with him - BDB Club members get to save!

Two Peace River area Riders went down last night, one is in the hospital and one is at home.

210 Kilometers per hour - some dude on a motorcycle was clocked at 210KPH in Saskatoon...Smart like tractor...

If you are a BDB Club member, you got your newsletter today and it has the link to our newly revamped web site. We are asking people to go play around in there, touch and try everything you can - the new site launches next week! If you find something that doesn't appear to be working properly, please let our web mistress know: email her at- ali4evr@gmail.com.
For those of you who haven't yet joined our network or riders sharing information with each other, here is the link: http://gator797.hostgator.com/~bdbetty1/

We are having to move servers because we discovered after hundreds of hours of work and tons of calls to GoDaddy our current host that the reason our web site has been soooo slow is our server.
Moving servers as you will see has our new site loading lightening fast and you can share stuff with Face book & Twitter. We will have our own share url and a whole host of new networking tools! Please give us your feedback! Help us make this thing rock!

Also in the news feeds today- the state of Wisconsin has come up with a unique campaign to help curb drinking and riding.

My question today is: How much alcohol is it OK to consume when you are on your motorcycle? I myself tend to drink coffee, water and pop. Rarely - I may have ONE drink.

What is the right limit for you?

I have attended many rides that seem to promote drinking and riding - I personally think that is plain old stupid. One of my pet peeves about Sturgis is that every gas station, every little hole in the wall has tubs of beer and coolers out in the parking lot. Promoting drinking and riding like that tells me these people care more about the $ than they do motorcyclists lives. But again that is just my two bits worth.

Tell me what your thoughts are on drinking and riding...I would love to hear them!

If you are one of the fortunate and are riding today - ride like everyone around you is blind and can't see you, stay hydrated and PLEASE - use respect with your throttle hand!

Belt Drive Betty

I guess I hit a nerve or two...and I love the dialogue!

Yesterday's blog post appears to have hit a nerve or two with a few people in my Facebook network. (I love picking other people's brains and getting their opinions on things.)

There are those who say leave well enough alone, you can't legislate stupidity out of the equation and there are others who say we need to train people before they get a license.

I find a few things about getting your motorcycle license in this country a tad ridiculous.

I can have a learners permit and ride with a licensed rider - no training required, just pass the written exam and voila, you have a learner's permit, get on your bike and go.
I can ride the test and never take a rider training course.

Am I wrong to think that we should be training people BEFORE we let them loose on the streets? It has happened a time or two- me being wrong- you know. (LOL - Tongue in cheek)

I am of the frame of mind that a vehicle or a motorcycle is a weapon when driven/ridden with undo care and attention. The biggest difference between a vehicle and a motorcycle driven in a careless manner is that the rider tends to come out the looser.

So today my question is this...

Do you support mandatory rider training? If not - why?

I personally feel that life long learning is something everyone should embrace - but again, that's just me.

Have a wonderful day, ride like everyone around you is blind and can't see you and PLEASE, use respect with that throttle hand and stay hydrated!

Belt Drive Betty

The RCMP, a Supreme Court Ruling and Rider Deaths & Injuries

In BC, the Supreme Court verdict is in.

The members of the Hells Angels are guilty as charged of their crimes, but they did not commit their crimes on behalf of a Criminal Organization, namely the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club - it is not illegal to belong to the club. Read the news article.

So what are your thoughts on that ruling?

If you are Pro the Charter of Freedoms and Rights you will probably applaud it.
If you think the club is a criminal organization you'll probably be scratching your head.

I am sure of one thing: the RCMP must be pulling out their hair. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayers money has gone in to trying to prove that the club is a criminal organization.
Thousands upon thousands of man hours by the RCMP have gone in to that fight.

How does this ruling affect the one from Ontario? Or the laws in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta that have banned the wearing of the club patches due to the "Criminal Nature" of the club? I wonder what the next move in this chess game is going to be...
Stay tuned as I am positive the saga will not end here.

In other news the numbers of deaths of riders is appalling.

I believe that the time has come in this country for a few things to happen...

Number one for me is AFFORDABLE Mandatory Rider Training- it has to be introduced in this country. It is long since past time in my humble opinion.

Number two: Graduated licensing for those wishing to purchase sport bikes - just like what is being introduced in Quebec OR Mandatory Road Racing Training. These machines are far too powerful, too responsive, too short in wheel base to be allowed on the street with inexperienced riders in command of them.

If mandatory Road Racing Training came as part of the package - the riders of these machines would be given the skills to handle the power. Out of all of the machines available to ride - these machines are the easiest to have a fatal accident on in my humble opinion - it's simply a matter of physics.

I know that may opinions my not be terribly popular however, I am tired of seeing young people on these machines winding up dead or severely injured. I feel for their families and friends.

I am also very discouraged by the number of accidents I am reading of that involve cagers and left hand turns. Driver Awareness and Rider Awareness campaigns need to increase to my way of thinking.

I also think that Advanced Rider Training needs to become more affordable and more widely offered. The Ride like a Pro V DVD will help those of us that are not in locales where advanced courses are offered and I think that if every rider practiced the techniques offered on the DVD there would be a lot fewer deaths and severe accidents.

Read the main stream media news feeds on www.bustedknucklenews.com
They are filled with accident information...I can only imagine how many of these accidents could be prevented if riders were given extra training, if drivers of automobiles paid more attention and if young riders did not have this idea that they are invincible.

Your thoughts and ideas on preventing accidents - your ideas on my opinions are VERY MUCH welcome. It is through dialogue with members of our own community and those of the non riding community that perhaps we can find some solutions that will help us all.

If you are lucky enough to be riding today, PLEASE - ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you, stay hydrated and use respect with that right hand.

Belt Drive Betty

What a Wonderful way to spend a weekend!

This weekend I had the absolute pleasure of riding with some of the nicest people I know!
Mike Cole from the Winter Ride for Diabetes and his friend Mark from Vancouver joined Larry DeBolt (VP AIM-Can PCC), Terry Stauffer (Pres GP Toys 4 Tots), Lyle Volden (VP GP Toys 4 Tots) and Floyd Funk of Wembley and I as we headed to Peace River's Toy Run & Peace Fest with Videographers Mike Reeve and Tom from Velocity Video.

The skies were filled with ominous clouds and the severe weather warnings, Hawg Flatts, Horsetheif Hideout, Summer Slam and other events hurt the attendance from the GP side of things.

At Sexsmith we got wet - man did we get wet. The rain was coming down so hard you couldn't see 3 feet in front of you. The rain got into my glasses and was swirling around, bouncing of my eyeballs. It was wet! As fast as it started it was over and the rest of the ride was damp but otherwise decent.

We had a wonderful meet 'n' greet at the Sawridge Inns & Conference Centre. The finger foods and beverages were inhaled! Nicole Halvorson of Mighty Peace Tourism and Jill Cairns from the Peace River Riders Association visited with us. We drew for some Ride Prizes - a free night at the Sawridge -Lyle Volden came out the winner. Three tickets to Peace Fest were also won by Floyd Funk, Terry Stauffer and Larry DeBolt.

Saturday morning dawned and we headed over to the Pancake Breakfast at the Co-op and then over to the staging area for the Toy Run.

A number of riders from Fairview that wanted to attend the Dice Run but did not wish to be out in severe weather the night before joined us and in all 44 bikes headed off to participate in the Toy Run and later 15 would continue on for the balance of the Dice Run.

The MD of Peace River, the Berwyn Super A and the municipality of Berwyn provided water and sandwiches at the first stop Mackenzie Cairn, then we headed into Berwyn. The next stop was Grimshaw where the Visitor Centre provided dessert, cookies, fruit with dip and coffee. It was a fabulous treat!

When we got back in to Peace River for the final stop at Maximum Powersports, the winner of the pot was Terry Stauffer who donated all of the money back keeping o meager $60 for his fuel!
Chad from Maximum Powersports made the Ride Prize draw for the Dice Run after everyone rolled for the first time on Saturday - Rocky Neufeld won the beautiful jacket from Maximum.

Off to Grimshaw for fuel and to make our way to Hines Creek. In Grimshaw we drew for the Jaccuzi Room at the Clairmont Ramada and it was won by Ron LeBlanc.

In Hines Creek we stopped in to the Hines Creek End of Steel Museum and at the world's Largest Rail Road Spike. We drew two more prizes and rolled the dice again.
KC Betts from Peace River won the GPRC Rider Training Course Gift Certificate - she has a bike but no license so that was FABULOUS! Dan McCran from Fairview won the gift certificate from WalMart.

Once in Fairview we were served the most incredible BBQ by the owners of the Dunvegan Inn & Suites - Bert and Val. OH MY was that a feast! Sirloin Burgers with a huge array of fixings, brownies and Nanaimo bars, fruit, pop, coffee, water...mmmm

We rolled the dice for the final time and when everyone's scores were tallied, Mike Cole from Nestor Falls ON won the pot which he turned around and donated right back to our injured rider - Layton Park!

Kevin Chernak won the helmet from Stojan's for the worst roll and then we all sang Happy Birthday to him!

Mike Cole won the jacket from Northgate Honda when the first ticket was pulled and the ticket for the last draw belonged to Bill Antonello and his wife. They won the Jacuzzi Room with breakfast from the Stanford Inn.

What an fabulous weekend! It started out on rocky footing, but it ended with so much sunshine, happiness and gratitude.

All of the riders were thrilled with the hospitality and I for one had a ball. I rode with some of the best people I have ever ridden with!

This year's event was held to support the Peace River Toy Run, take in Peace Fest and so that the filming we were doing could showcase some of the fabulous events there are to attend here in the Peace.

I can't wait until next year when this ride, which is tentatively slated for July 17th next year so it doesn't conflict with Hawg Flatts or Horsethief will become the Official Ride for Dad in the Peace!

If you are riding today, Please - stay safe. Ride like everyone around you is blind, stay hydrated and use respect with that throttle hand!

Belt Drive Betty