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News › Bakersfield Police Step-Up Motorcycle Safety Enforcement
Bakersfield Police are trying curb the recent rise in deadly motorcycle accidents by hitting the streets looking for drivers ignoring the rules of the road.
Over five hundred people died in motorcycle accidents in California in 2006. Five people in Kern County have lost their lives riding a motocycle since last September. We spoke with a family who knows first hand how dangerous life on a bike can be with reckless drivers on the streets.
Bakersfield Police hit the streets Friday night, with another task to add to the list of crime fighting, looking for violations that contribute to accidents involving motorcycles. Something the family of Joe Alex Ecalante is all too familiar with. Last month, Escalante, a decorated Iraq war veteran, slammed into the back of a big rig when it pulled in front of him. When we last saw Joe he was still in the hospital, in critical condition from a brain injury. Now, just over a month later he is strongly recovering and up on two legs. He still faces a long road to recovery but his wife Juliet says they just take it day by day and focus on the positive.
Last Sunday, the Escalante's went to support the family of another motorcyclist killed April 13th, in a hit and run accident on Ming Avenue. Escalante says the man killed, Jared Brown, supported Escalante when he first got in his accident.
It was Brown's accident and several others that has led to the increased enforcement. Now, officers will be out targeting reckless drivers both in cars and on motorcycles, speeding, making unsafe lane changes, and ignoring the right of way. Joe Escalante says he misses riding his bike and hopes all drivers will pay closer attention to the rules of the road. He gives credit to the Bakersfield Police department for stepping up enforcement and hopes other agencies follow their lead.
According to Bakersfield police just over 2% of registered vechicles in California are motorcycles, but the make up 10% of all fatal crashes
Source: Fox58
Posted by editor on Sunday, April 27, 2008 (01:37:59) (216 reads)
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