A throttling problem

October 25, 2004

Dear Sir,

I am writing in response to Diana Williams' letter appearing on October 25, regarding "Change Bike Designs". Mrs. Williams, the call for the cycle industry to "change their design to conform to the obvious" in the face of Bermuda's fatality rate on the roads is poorly thought out, and will be ridiculous to try to implement. Millions of motorcycle riders throughout the world have made themselves comfortable with the throttle design you claim is responsible for the fatalities of visitors.

While I as a Bermudian feel terrible about the fact that an innocent person and their family should have to suffer this sort of tragedy, a real desire to affect the future should involve a realistic and thoroughly thought out course of action. Changing the throttle ain't it.

How many persons have you spoken to that complained of that particular cause of their accident? How many accidents worldwide are caused by that same reason? In comparison, how many are due to riders being simply inexperienced and therefore making poor decisions in moments of unusual pressure?

What argument, besides a few deaths on Bermuda's roads, could you possibly hope to bring to the motorcycle industry to enact a sweeping change across the entire board, affecting not only manufacture and printed literature, but also the millions of riders who have taken the time to become familiar with their riding habits and, more particularly, their throttle?

How many deaths would your suggestion cause if it were to be put to action, after perhaps thousands of experienced riders make poor decisions in moments of unusual pressure after the hard-earned muscle memory and control that has made their riding habits safe and familiar become suddenly irrelevant and useless?

I accept the need to address the number of deaths on Bermuda's roads. I also think that our local industry should take a good hard look at the processes and vetting procedures to determine who should be allowed to rent a cycle on our roads. I do not know the mechanics of that hard look, but I think it might be both necessary and painful.

But at least it will have more of a chance of useful implementation than a knee-jerk and poorly thought out response. Death is not an abstract concept. Neither should be the efforts to prevent it. I should have thought that would be "obvious".

COLEMAN EASTON

Pembroke