Highway Memorial Red Cross Placement
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Family, friends, and fellow bikers gathered in Ft.Worth Sunday to honor the memory of Sanger's Dody Montgomery, who was killed by the driver of an SUV while standing next to her motorcycle last Labor Day weekend. A Highway Memorial Red Cross was planted near the site as part of a new motorcycle awareness campaign begun by Texas ABATE, a motorcyclists' rights organization. Montgomery’s daughter, Tami Selby, who was also injured in the wreck, is a member of the local Denton ABATE chapter.
Over fifty motorcycles and a hundred people made the trip down I-35W from Denton to the Heritage Trace Parkway overpass, where Montgomery, Selby, and Selby's son Mikey stopped last year while riding to Ft.Worth because of impending rain. James Riley, an Oklahoma parolee, lost control of his SUV and careened into both bikes. Montgomery was killed instantly, Selby was severely injured, but Mikey miraculously escaped without injury. The case is still pending in the Ft. Worth court system.
The Red Cross program is part of a Motorcycle Fatality Awareness campaign started this year by Texas ABATE, in an effort to bring the need for motorists to pay attention to motorcycles into the public eye. Texas Department of Transportation already had specifications in place for memorial crosses to commemorate highway fatalities, but there are no rules for color on the books. Texas ABATE has claimed the color red for motorcycle fatality crosses, the first of which statewide was placed in CollinCounty on August 9th in memory of veteran Jim Cook.
While ABATE's focus is on legislation protecting the rights of motorcyclists, charitable works and public education, recent efforts have been concentrated on safety and awareness issues due to the increase in motorcycles on the roads over the past two years. As gas prices rise, more people are opting to save money by riding, and higher accident and fatality numbers are the result. Approximately three-fourths of motorcycle accidents are the result of a vehicle-motorcycle incident in which the vehicle driver is at fault. Texas ABATE hopes to raise motorist awareness of motorcycles by the planting of these red crosses, in an effort to prevent the planting of more.
Over fifty motorcycles and a hundred people made the trip down I-35W from Denton to the Heritage Trace Parkway overpass, where Montgomery, Selby, and Selby's son Mikey stopped last year while riding to Ft.Worth because of impending rain. James Riley, an Oklahoma parolee, lost control of his SUV and careened into both bikes. Montgomery was killed instantly, Selby was severely injured, but Mikey miraculously escaped without injury. The case is still pending in the Ft. Worth court system.
The Red Cross program is part of a Motorcycle Fatality Awareness campaign started this year by Texas ABATE, in an effort to bring the need for motorists to pay attention to motorcycles into the public eye. Texas Department of Transportation already had specifications in place for memorial crosses to commemorate highway fatalities, but there are no rules for color on the books. Texas ABATE has claimed the color red for motorcycle fatality crosses, the first of which statewide was placed in CollinCounty on August 9th in memory of veteran Jim Cook.
While ABATE's focus is on legislation protecting the rights of motorcyclists, charitable works and public education, recent efforts have been concentrated on safety and awareness issues due to the increase in motorcycles on the roads over the past two years. As gas prices rise, more people are opting to save money by riding, and higher accident and fatality numbers are the result. Approximately three-fourths of motorcycle accidents are the result of a vehicle-motorcycle incident in which the vehicle driver is at fault. Texas ABATE hopes to raise motorist awareness of motorcycles by the planting of these red crosses, in an effort to prevent the planting of more.
