BAND respond to bike industry fight back

Road safety campaigners BAND have responded to criticism from the bike industry with claims that they are not anti-bike or anti-biker – just anti ‘lethal idiots’.

The Blisdale Against Noise and Danger organisation, which wants more traffic cops and speed cameras on the B1257 in North Yorkshire, spurred the Motorcycle Industry Association to action with its claims in the national media.

The MCIA hit back saying: " Campaigning by the North Yorkshire local pressure group BAND, using the names of celebrities to highlight problems on certain Yorkshire rural roads, has been seized upon to generate an entirely wrong picture of national motorcycle safety."

The MCIA says the mainstream media has been mislead by wild claims about 180 mph motorcycling; distorted casualty figures and claims of danger to other road users from ‘racing bikers’ and ‘blood on the roads’’.

The organisation said: " This seems to have become the latest fashionable way of presenting motorcycling as dangerous and unacceptable. "

BAND has responded saying: " The campaign has never been against bikes or bikers. We are against the lethal idiots who turn our country roads into death traps, at the same time ruining the peace of this precious national park. Unfortunately, the North York Moors have become a magnet for this minority, who travel to the area, often from great distances, with the specific intention of breaking the law. Claims of speeds of 180 mph and more do not come from BAND. They come from bikers. They have been made on national radio, on biker websites. They are a part of the public record.

" These claims may well be exaggerations, as the MCIA suggests. "

" We accept that the MCIA is committed to safe biking practice, and we are happy to work with them. We also accept that irresponsible bikers are the exception rather than the rule. But the BAND campaign is concerned with a part of the country where the exception applies – where the lives of residents and visitors are threatened and seriously affected by this minority of "irresponsible idiots".

" Education does not reach these people. They know precisely what they are doing. For this minority, we need significantly enhanced enforcement. "

Do you accept BAND’s argument? Is it ok to run a nationwide campaign to target a small area of the country, all at the risk of tarring all motorcycling with the irresponsibility brush?

Is it ok to quote the ‘public record’ if you knew, or could easily discover, that the ‘public record’ is false?

BAND has its high profile supporters, perhaps you agree with them that some riders do go too far and extra policing won’t do law abiding riders any harm at all.

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