- In 2023, CHP recorded 82 motorcycle accidents that resulted in injuries, and another 12 motorcycle fatal accidents in Kern County.
- CHP secured a 700 thousand dollar grant, helping launch their “Get Educated and Ride Safe” campaign.
- The yearlong campaign lasts until September 30, 2025.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
In the 2022 to 2023 fiscal year, California Highway Patrol reported more than 7,000 motorcycle-involved crashes, resulting in 336 deaths and more than 6,300 injuries.
“For most motorcycle accidents, a lot of the time it’s other drivers… who don’t share the roads,” said Jorge Toro with Bakersfield CHP.
But on October first, CHP received a $700,000 grant to launch a campaign to curb these numbers.
“We got awarded a grant through the office of Traffic Safety,” said Toro. “And that grant is gonna help with problematic areas of Kern County that are identified by our office as problematic in the sense of… we see a higher rate of fatal accidents that happened in that area and also injury crashes,” said Toro.
He says this grant will fund the “Get Educated and Ride Safe" campaign– a yearlong program dedicated to education and enforcement strategies aimed to reduce the number of motorcycle-related crashes and deaths.
Toro said they’re still in the early stages of the campaign.
“We’re gonna meet with other leaders here in Kern County identifying those problematic areas and talking about going ahead and planning those enforcement details,” said Toro.
But they plan on doing a kickoff in early December.
“Part of this safety campaign is we focus on… primary collision factors being number one DUI, seatbelt violations, unsafe turn movements, and failing to yield the right of way to pedestrians and other motorists,” said Toro.
The campaign lasts until September 30, 2025.
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