Driving your bike is a enjoyable pastime with well being advantages and an efficient solution to get round for work or pleasure. Sadly, it may also be harmful. Apart from your helmet, there may be little to guard your physique from hurt should you collide with a automotive whereas driving your bike. At night time, the danger is larger as a result of drivers might not see you.
Based on the U.S. Division of Transportation, 854 cyclists have been killed in collisions with automobiles in 2018 alone. The excellent news is biking deaths have decreased by 15% since 1975. The dangerous information is, the bottom price of deaths was in 2010. Since then, the demise price has elevated by 38%.
Hold studying to study extra about frequent causes of bicycle accidents and why the speed of bicyclist deaths is climbing. The next are a few of the most vital contributors to the bicycle accident with different automobiles:
Failure to Comply with Visitors Legal guidelines
Bicycle legal guidelines in Georgia deal with bicycles as automobiles which might be topic to all the identical legal guidelines as automobiles on the street. Which means as a bike owner you need to be revered as one other driver with a proper to be on the street. It additionally means you’ve gotten the identical obligations as automobiles, so far as visitors legal guidelines are involved.
Lots of accidents occur when cyclists fail to observe the foundations of the street or they assume that a few of the legal guidelines don’t apply to them. Once you’re driving your bike you have to journey in the precise lane, getting into the identical course as different motorists round you.
Following visitors legal guidelines additionally means ready at visitors lights, stopping at cease indicators, and yielding to visitors and pedestrians if you don’t have the precise of means. Failing to adjust to these guidelines makes a collision much more seemingly.
They Don’t See You
Whereas you need to be diligent and all the time journey defensively, a variety of bicycle security on the street relies on the alternatives of the drivers round you. One of many largest risks to you as a bike owner on the street is the truth that you’re comparatively small and laborious to identify in comparison with most automobiles on the market.
A driver won’t discover you instantly in the event that they’re not significantly alert, and this turns into much more of an issue at night time. For those who’re going to journey your bike at nightfall or later, it’s best to:
• Put lights on the entrance and rear of your bike
• Put on light-reflective clothes
• Be conversant in the route you’re touring
• Obey all visitors legal guidelines
• Be certain your bike is well-maintained
If drivers can’t assist however see you on the street, they’ll be a lot much less more likely to hit you. You by no means know the way distracted or disoriented a driver may be, so that you wish to make it straightforward for them to see you and keep away from you.
Unpredictable Actions
As a bike owner, there’s nothing you are able to do to completely management the drivers round you and guarantee they make secure choices. What you are able to do is give all of them the data they could must be secure round you. You have to be sure they see you, however you additionally must take care to not shock them.
Drivers on the street see you and make plans to keep away from you primarily based on what they anticipate you to do. Any sudden strikes or turns or different choices that the motive force doesn’t see coming might put you in danger. Use biking hand indicators earlier than you make any turns, and attempt to keep at a constant velocity when you possibly can.
No matter you do, don’t let security considerations dissuade you from getting out on the street and having fun with a motorbike journey each every so often. All you have to do is keep alert and defensive and take a few precautions to make sure your security.
