A team from London’s Metropolitan Police travelled to JHQ recently to share their expertise on motorcycle safety with members of the BFG community. “Bike Safe” is an innovative project which was launched in 2003 by the Met Police to better educate motorcyclists about how to ride safely.
WO2 Andy Riach of 1 MI Bn, himself a keen biker, heard of the scheme and approached the Bike Safe team about conducting a course for Germany-based motorcyclists and their dependents. As a result, a 7-strong convoy of police officers, complete with their police bikes and high-vis vests made the journey over to JHQ for a 4 day visit.
Bike Safe Team Leader Sgt Paul Mostyn explained why he and his colleagues were keen to take up Andy’s offer: “In the UK, motorcyclists make up only 2% of all road users but account for a quarter of all road deaths, mainly as a result of excessive speed. We launched Bike Safe in London in 2003 to help address this. The word spread and other Police forces adopted the scheme too. Ultimately, any members of the forces community out in Germany will also be riding in the UK at some point, so we’re happy to be running the course over here too”.
In the 5 years since its launch, the Bike Safe team in London have taught some 13,000 motorcyclists and the number of accidents resulting in death have been reduced by almost half.
Also involved in the course was Allan McEwan, who works in HQ ARRC and was acting as the senior observer for the Institute of Advanced Motorists. “This course is so relevant for the forces community” he said. “Young soldiers in particular return from operational deployments with extra spending money and often a feeling of invincibility. They go out and buy themselves a powerful bike that they aren’t experienced enough to control. There have been a number of fatal motorcycle accidents within BFG in the last few years”. |
