For most teenagers freedom is a necessity whilst completing their last few years in high school and this freedom is found with the ability to use their own set of wheels, so to speak. No more nagging mom and dad for lifts to a social gathering or long walks to school for sport practices, but instead, a set of keys which enables you to find your own way around.
Most school pupils go through the motions of acquiring their driving licence in their last year of high school, but for a few, this little plastic passport to freedom comes a bit earlier in life in the form of a motorcycle learners licence. What few teenagers realise is that with this newly discovered freedom comes a huge responsibility.
ER24 emergency services attend to hundreds of motorcycle accidents annually and have noticed a sudden influx of scooter and motorcycle accidents in Kimberley. The influx of scooter related accidents is in no way isolated to this Northern Cape city as these cases are reported daily across South Africa.
Due to the short time period over which these accidents took place, paramedics in Kimberley felt the need to investigate the anomaly; what they discovered was shocking.
Upon questioning the teenagers involved in the accidents they discovered that most of the young adults received their motorcycle to drive to and from school without ever gaining any experience in driving a vehicle on two wheels. In other words, most of the teenagers had never even been on a bicycle before the day of receiving their scooter.
As adults and parents we serve as examples and mentors to the youth and therefore need to educate the young drivers. The paramedics in Kimberley identified this need to educate the youth in the area on the skills necessary to drive the motorcycles and what to do in the event of an emergency should the situation arise. With the help of local traffic officials and bikers from the surrounding area, the group of educators invited all the kids one Saturday morning and mentored the young commuters on certain safety aspects.
Living in a civilised society comes with its set of rules and morals. This is valid for all licence baring road users as we have a responsibility to go about our daily commute in a safe manner. As the youth of this nation evolves and use the roads whether on a scooter or on four wheels, ask yourself the question: “Am I a role model when it comes to good road etiquette?”
Andre Visser, ER24
For Motorbike Safety, we would like to urge all our bikers to view the following sections: