Steve,
The AMA is your best shot for this type of support,
(http://www.ama-cycle.org/ ). They have spent a lot of "legal" time
bringing some incidents to justice where otherwise people would have
just walked away with no charges filed. If you want to get involved in
a particular incident then visit the prosecutor's office having
jurisdiction and make sure charges are being filed. Once you make this
connection you will be able to find out when sentencing is taking
place, (if it gets that far), and you can mount a letter writing
campaign, (the prosecutor here in Phoenix handling Doug Bennet's case
said this makes a big difference). If you find no apparent motivation
on the part of the local prosecutor then for sure get the AMA
involved, (do it anyhow), and post it on the list with the date and
details or at least a reference to a newspaper article. Too many of
these cases are being written off as simple "everyday" accidents with
the motorcyclist being viewed as a victim only because they "chose" to
share the road with larger vehicles. The attitude generally is that it
was OK for you to get killed because you were dumb enough to be on a
motorcycle. It is prime time for the motorcycle to join the ranks of
other "approved" social targets such as smokers, gun owners and
elderly drivers etc ... it could happen ... I watched the sentencing
of three teenagers not too long ago ... they ran a red light and
killed a guy driving through the light, (not on a motorcycle though)
... when asked if they had anything to say .... one actually had the
nerve to tell the judge ... "well .. we have learned our lesson and we
are very sorry ... but we are young and we were just being wild .... "
.. he went on to ask the judge .. " Is it really right to ruin all
three of our lives just because of one person ?? It doesn't seem fair"
...... Even the boy's parents pleaded to the judge that they were just
going through one of those "teenager" phases and should not really be
held responsible for just being kids ... Obviously, we "have" reached
a point in time where "make the rules as you go" applies and legal
repercussions, (if any), are not seriously viewed as a threat and
therefore offer less of a deterrent to those that otherwise might just
stop for a minute and think about what they are doing.
campbell
----- Original Message -----
From: "S_Moore" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "V-MAX TECH LIST" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, November 23, 2000 6:27 AM
Subject: motorcycle vs cars/trucks
> Is their any motorcycle organization thats helps injured motorcycle
> riders prosecute the idiots
> that smash into motorcycle riders ? Some jerk in a truck ran a
traffic
> light here in Louisville KY
> yesterday and rearended a sport bike. The bike passenger is dead and
the
> guy driving the
> bike is in the ICU at the hospital. The driver of the truck is in
jail
> charged with murder, he may of
> been drunk, they aren't saying yet. They showed the crash scene and
the
> truck had ran over the
> bike clear up to the back of the gas tank......the bike was still
> sitting upwright with the truck on
> top of it........During in town driving this is one of my biggest
> fears..being rearended, its so easy
> to ignore your rear view mirrors in town.
>
> Steve Moore
94
> Vmax
>
vmoa#1368
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