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Army to offer sport bike safety course

The Army will offer soldiers a new sport bike rider course in an effort to continue bolstering motorcycle safety education and reducing or eliminating injury and death.

Twenty soldiers were killed in motorcycle accidents in the first six months of fiscal 2008, more than double the number of soldiers killed on motorcycles during the same period last year.

The fatalities included 14 soldiers killed on powerful sport bikes built for speed and generally favored by younger soldiers, according to data compiled by the Combat Readiness Center at Fort Rucker, Ala.

Speed combined with loss of control has resulted when soldiers accustomed to riding heavier bikes switch to the lighter, faster, less expensive sport bikes without knowing how to handle them on the road, CRC deputy commander Col. Glenn Harp told Army Times in an earlier interview.

The new sport bike course is a program of the Motorcycle Safety Foundation and will be launched at Fort Rucker, Ala., on Friday with 11 soldiers who will be the first to take the free one-day course.

Training will include three classroom hours of scenario-based, interactive training and requires riders to assess their personal risk level and riding habits. Four hours of on-cycle range training allows riders to implement classroom learning and practice maneuvering skills in a controlled environment.

In addition to teaching advanced riding skills, MSRC instructors also focus on riders’ attitude and mindset to highlight the dangers of riding sport bikes, according to an Army press release.

Soldiers are required to complete a Motorcycle Safety Foundation or MSF-based approved motorcycle rider safety course before they can operate a motorcycle.

The Army’s Motorcycle Safety Riders Course was conceived by the CRC’s driving task force in conjunction with the U.S. Naval Safety Center, and developed by the Motorcycle Safety Foundation to provide service members with training in the operation of high-performance motorcycles, the release said.

The Army provides soldiers with free basic and experienced rider courses tailored to different levels of proficiency and experience in riding.

In addition, there are dozens of voluntary motorcycle rider clubs all over the Army that foster riding camaraderie and safety.

At Fort Stewart, Ga., the first of what will eventually grow to about 20 motorcycle simulators will be used for safety and reintegration training by 3rd Infantry Division soldiers returning from the war zone after 15 months.

“Nobody’s touching their motorcycle until they go through the refresher course. Nobody’s touching their privately owned vehicle for the first 24 hours, nobody’s going to leave a 100 mile radius of Fort Stewart because I don’t want them driving and getting tired on the way home,” said division commander Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch in a telephone interview from Baghdad.

“You put those safety things in place so they don’t do something silly and hurt themselves after being here for 15 months,” he said.

READ MORE: Old Guard soldier dies in motorcycle crash