Motorcyclists pay tribute to fallen riders at ceremony
Posted May 5, 2013 4:11 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
BURNABY (NEWS1130) – Dozens of people paid tribute to those who’ve been killed or seriously injured in their motorcycles. The parking lot at the Burnaby Cenotaph was full of Harleys lined up for the Rider Down Memorial Service.
Event organizer Rick Streifel says the whole idea was to “memorialize those that unfortunately lost their lives doing something that they truly loved.” He’s calling for more education as prevention.
“Motorcyclists seem to be invisible to an awful lot of the driving public…so we really need to step up the awareness. Motorcycling is much more fuel efficient, environmentally sound, occupies less road space, and less wear and tear on our roads yet, it’s as though [some people feel] that we’re some kind of pariahs in a lot of respects.”
Wendy’s friend was in a motorcycle accident years ago and as a result he lost his legs. She’s here to honour him and pass on a message to drivers and bikers that “everyone on the road wants to come home safe.”
“People are not paying attention and then all of a sudden, somebody goes down and it’s a shame. You just [need] a couple seconds, paying attention, look left, right, slow down, it would be nice [for people] to pay attention so that things like that don’t happen more often.”
Al loves to ride. He says his younger cousin is the same, but after her serious accident, she may not get the chance again. “That was well over a year ago and she’s still recovering. She probably won’t ride in the near future, and she’s still doing all the therapy to relearn to walk, and she’s doing pretty good now compared to what she was before.”
A moment of silence was held for accident victims. Event organizers say there are roughly 2,400 motorcycle crashes on average in BC every year.
