My former neighbor of three years, Marie Rushton, facing serious operations and in constant, terrible pain, is leading an avalanche of reform to motorbike licensing law, and I predict she will win.
She is trying to stop a “Bikes for Bodies“ scandal.
Mrs Rushton is amazed at interest from all over the State, and interstate, since she started publicising the motorcycle death of her grand-child Luke, killed at a notorious black spot on Bolivia Hill, between Glen Innes and Tenterfield.
Recently friends held a commemorative service for Luke who lost control of his new Kawasaki a year ago and slammed into a rock cliff face.
However Mrs Rushton’s research of the accident has exposed inconsistencies in RTA licensing conditions for motor bike riders.
While car drivers must complete 120 hours driving, a bike rider only has seven hours’ testing, with no road tests. Instead they attend a few lectures at an RTA testing training centre. This has been described by some as a farce.
Being a pensioner, 20-year-old Luke had to pay only $78 for his licence and $38 for a computer road rules test. It is one of the most popular ways of young unemployed getting on the roads, cheaply.
However, the taxpayers’ cost of police and emergency services, and Luke’s inquest, has been estimated at $300,000 according to transport/academic experts. The New England Highway was closed for six hours when Luke died on July 27, 2010. There could be hundreds of unnecessary accidents over the past five years that run into millions.
According to Mrs Rushton, Luke’s death was due to lack of experience, speed and his inability to control a powerful motorbike, while still on L plates. The seven-hour training condition authorised by the NSW Government has long been seen a death sentence among reformers, especially on icy New England roads.
Mrs Rushton holds that the RTA control of bike training schools and the standard of licensing is totally wrong, indeed a sham.
She wants to know how many young bodies have been needlessly sacrificed.
Mrs Rushton has hit a national nerve with bike riders, some significant politicians and now national media offering information and support.
New England Federal MP, Tony Windsor, told Federal Parliament there were 10 black spots where accidents were often reported in his electorate. Mrs Rushton has written to NSW Transport Minister Duncan Gay asking for a list of these death areas throughout the State and the numbers of deaths and public injuries.
However, reformers are also pressing for parliamentarians to disclose if they ride motorbikes.
Bob Cummins,
Armidale
