With more motorcycles on the road, keep safety in mind

State Police say the number of motorcycle accidents in our area is on the rise. You may remember two deadly accidents that happened last Friday. State Police say 59-year-old Ralph Carroll, Sr. was killed when a car turned in front of his motorcycle on Route 220 in Henry County.

Then there was a second deadly motorcycle accident on the same day, which shut down part of Interstate 81. State Police say a motorcycle rider was merging on I-81 from I-77 in Wytheville, when it ran off the road and crashed.

Now, Ten On Your Side has some advice you should keep in mind whether you’re on a motorcycle or surrounded by them.

You can see the heat waves on Route 460 and the motorcycles are coming out.

"Everybody wants to be out on their motorcycles and enjoying the air and freedom of the motorcycles. So you definitely need to be more aware,” said Kristin Cawley, a motorcycle safety instructor at Virginia Western Community College.

Cawley is with a basic riding course there at the college. They’re working on safety, and ordinary obstacles can be dangerous.

"Train tracks, places in the pavement, gravel roads, surface-treated roads, potholes,” she said.

But drivers in vehicles also need to pay attention. We caught up with other bikers in the area to hear what they had to say.

"It's mainly just watching out for traffic at an intersection,” said Kevin Thompson.

Instructors at the riding course say most motorcycle accidents happen around intersections. Those are busy places that involve drivers in cars and trucks. So we found some good On Your Side information drivers in vehicles should know when they’re on the road around other motorcycles.

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation says bikes may look farther away than they really are because of their size. For the same reason, they also may seem like they’re traveling faster than they really are.

Turn signals usually don’t automatically turn off. But each time, you need to act as though the signal is for real.

Also, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation explains bikers often slow down by downshifting or rolling off the throttle which doesn’t activate the brake light.

As George Thomson got on his bike to hit the road, he added, "Fortunately [motorcycles] have headlights on now. But when you're looking to pull out, just really check there's a biker coming up because they're hard to spot.”

It’s something to keep in mind because drivers in vehicles have extra protection, but for bikers, they’re only surrounded by open air.

The instructors at Virginia Western also understand bikers need to practice prevention. They teach them to wear “all their gear, all the time.” They even teach them avoidance techniques when it comes to accidents.