September - October 2013

Hi Guys now that the worst of the wet weather is behind us, it is time to make sure our bikes are ready for the rides ahead so please give your machines a thorough safety check or take it to your dealer for servicing. It is surprising what can change on a motorcycle when it is not used for a while.We have our Motorcycle Safety Week coming up November 1st – 7th and will be kicking it off at the Perth Motorcycle and Scooter Show. We have had Safety Week posters and fliers produced and these will be sent state wide to all local and regional councils with the help of WA Local Government Association we also have the Main Roads on board again with safety messages on their variable message boards on the freeways as well as on their website as is the Office of Road Safety. We will also be running a couple of free Ride Right motorcycle skills enhancement courses in the week leading up and at the end of Motorcycle Safety Week. The fliers I mentioned that we have had printed are tips for riders on one side and tips for drivers on the other side buy all about motorcycle safety, so they are good to give to car drivers to educate them about how they can help make our trips safer.As some of you would have read in the paper the funding that was provided from the Road Trauma Trust Account (funds from red light and speed cameras) to the RAC for vulnerable road users has been refused. This could have a huge effect on the Motorcycle and Scooter Safety Advisory Group (MSSAG) of which the MRA is a member as this was one of the groups that were run under this funding. Over the past few years this group has completed over 50 actions for riders including the implementation of LAMS and the WA rider handbook as well as motorcycle road design education to road engineers. So after the announcement of the funding cuts I quickly arranged meetings with Hon Lisa Harvey (Minister for Police and Road Safety) Hon Michelle Roberts (opposition spokesperson on Road Safety) the Office of Road Safety, Main Roads Department and the RAC to discuss the future of MSSAG and through these discussions it has been agreed to retain this group working into the future on some of our current actions such as the Motorcycle Safety Strategy and motorcycle black spot funding, really good news.Through the Australian Motorcycle Council (AMC) we have made a couple of submissions to federal Government Agencies over the past couple of months. The first was on 10th amendment to Australian Road Rules. Most of these were related to child restraints and seats but two where related to motorcycles, one being allowing a motorcyclist to remove his feet from the foot pegs (quite usefull when you are stopped) the other was to allow a rider to take both hands off the handle bars when stationary. I will see if we can get the submission on the MRA WA website.The other submission that we have made was to the ACCC Review of Consumer Product Safety Standards for Motorcycle Helmets (believe it or not that is the abbreviated title) this is a very large submission of 20 pages so I won’t try to cover it here but basically what we want is a safer and cheaper helmet and for helmets to be allowed to be brought into Australia that have been tested to an equivalent standard as we have in Australia without the additional costs to us of having it retested. Once again I will get this submission into the MRA WA website.As I mentioned in the last Safety Report I attended the National Road Safety Forum in Hobart this is a Federal Government forum and this year’s focus was vulnerable road users and was based on the four cornerstones of the National Safety Strategy, safe roads and roadsides, safe speed, safe vehicles and safe road users, I was in the group discussing safe roads and roadsides and managed to get the issue of lack of data on motorcycle and scooter crashes listed as one on the actions to be pursued. This action was taken up by NSW department of Transport. Whilst in Hobart I also attended the AMC Annual Conference this was a two day conference and many issues were raised including helmets, lane filtering, motorcycle training, and sub committees will be set up to tackle these and all the other issues raised.I also attended the Road Safety Research, Policing, and Education Conference in Brisbane. I was very happy to see that over 20 of the presentations were specific to motorcycles and scooters. This is a huge increase on the topics of previous years and is encouraging that the work that is being done by the different groups and organisations around the country is paying off.I will get summaries of all of these on the MRA WA website for your informationAs always I will keep you informed on these and any other issues that arise but feel free to contact me if you have any questions on rider issues.Dave WrightEmail- davmar08@bigpond.com Phone 0418 954 424RIDE LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT.