Rider safety and other issues

I am very pleased to let you all know that we now have the Good Gear Guide in print and you should be able to pick up a copy from your local motorcycle shop or licensing centre. If any motorcycle group requires bulk copies please contact me and I will arrange to get some out to you. This is a great publication and I would encourage every rider to read it regardless of what you ride or your level of experience.There seems to be a bit of confusion about my comments on helmet certification. There is a good link on the RTA website which explains the current Australian Standard and how the different stickers are all legal.   http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/roadsafety/motorcyclesafety/motorcyclehelmets.html The public consultation period for input into the Graduated Riders Training and Licensing has now been completed and the Department of Transport had over 1300 submissions which just reinforces that we as the riders of WA are keen to improve the current system that we have. I will be attending a stakeholder’s workshop on this very important issue at the end of August to look at moving this project forward.As I mentioned in the last Edge I was invited to sit in as an observer on a WA Road Safety Council meeting in June. This was something I had been pursuing for quite a while and it was great to finally see just what goes on behind to scenes. From my observations of the meeting I was very impressed with the commitment to reducing the level of road trauma to all road users by all the members of the Council and even if some of their decisions don’t always sit well with all road users I believe that they are based only on reducing our road toll, and if we feel there is something that we need to present to them we can do this through our road user representative the RACWA.I attended the National Motorcycle Safety Consultative Committee meeting in Melbourne on June 15th this was the first time that we have had a West Australian representative on this committee and it was even more important that we have a representative from each state for the first time as we were asked to give a presentation to the National Road Safety Council on the major safety issues facing motorcycle riders. It was great for me as Wayne Gardner chaired the meeting and I was happy to have a member of the council who had a well founded knowledge and understanding of our road safety concerns. We based our presentation on the 7 key issues that we developed at the Motorcycle and Scooter Safety Summit that was held in Canberra in2008 and conveyed our desire to have these actions move forward. I took a copy of the Good Gear Guide and let them know that WA was going on their own with the printing of the booklet  and all the members of the Council seemed surprised that it had not gone past the on line stage. I also mentioned that WA was working towards a graduated rider training scheme.Both of these initiatives were part of the 7 issues from the 2008 Canberra Summit. We have since been notified from the National Road Safety Council that they will be funding the publication of the Good Gear Guide for distribution Australia wide and that they have funding for the Motorcycle Safety Consultative Committee to have a face to face discussion to develop a paper on a national graduated rider training scheme and we will be meeting in Canberra in September.I will keep you up to date on these and any other matters that come our way.   Dave Wright