POTENTIALLY life-saving motorcycle safety courses run by Warwickshire Police and Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service (WFRS) have been reinstated.
The Bike Safe and Biker Down workshops have been on hold due to Covid-19, but are now back up and running with restricted numbers to allow social distancing.
Bike Safe workshops, run by Warwickshire Police, are an opportunity for riders to experience a professional police-observed ride with police-graded riders.
Biker Down, run by WFRS, is a free training course designed to train riders to take the correct action in the first few moments after an incident. It uses the expertise and advice from the Emergency Services and Road Safety Officers and is aimed at all ages and levels of experience.
One customer, Neil, who attended a Warwickshire Police Bike Safe workshop last year said: “I have been riding on the roads for 40 years now and never had any formal training other than that necessary to pass my test at 17 and consider myself lucky to have avoided any major accidents in all that time.
“In one day, this course has changed the way I ride – different lines, greater visibility, more time to think and a more relaxed and enjoyable ride as a result.”
Another customer, Jack, said: “The day was fantastic, really well put together and incredibly good value for money. I learnt more in that one day than I have in 11 years of riding. It’s given me so much more confidence on the road and has definitely made me a safer rider.”
Sgt Shaun Bridle from Warwickshire Police Roads Policing unit said: “Motorcyclists are at a higher risk of being seriously injured in any collision. Unfortunately, over recent years we have had a number of serious and fatal collisions involving motorcyclists on our roads and on several of these collisions it has been established that rider error was a significant contributing factor.
“I am confident that additional rider training, such as that offered on Bike Safe, equips riders to gain the skills and knowledge to be safer riders and shows the advantages of further training.”
Warwickshire County Council community safety spokesman Coun Andy Crump added: “Having an awareness of road safety is crucial to keeping residents in Warwickshire safer. The WFRS bike safety course, Biker Down, aims to give people to confidence to know what to do if they are first on the scene of an accident by giving them essential first-aid training. We also equip people with skills to reduce their risk of being involved in a crash in the first place.
“By working in partnership with Warwickshire Police on these safety courses, we aim to reduce the number of road traffic collisions involving motorcycles so that our residents are safer on the roads.”
Visit https://bikesafe.co.uk/warwickshire for more information on Bike Safe. Visit https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/bikerdown for more information on Biker Down.
