With motorcycle season entering its peak, the Highway Safety Network and Muhlenberg Township Police recently gathered at Jim Deitrich Park to urge both riders and motorists to take greater responsibility on the road.
The event, part of PennDOT’s Live Free Ride Alive motorcycle safety campaign, brought together safety advocates and two of the township’s certified motorcycle patrolmen, Officers Sam Calabria and Jason Walters, to highlight the risks that accompany the busy summer riding months.
The campaign uses social media, outreach events and statewide training programs to promote defensive riding and remind drivers to watch for motorcycles.
Walters emphasized that riders must understand their limits and that motorists must do more to look for motorcycles, which are smaller and more easily hidden in blind spots.
PennDOT’s Motorcycle Safety Program offers free basic and intermediate training at dozens of sites statewide, including Classic Harley‑Davidson in Bern Township in 2024. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)
“You’ve got to learn how to share the road,” he said.
Drivers, he added, should signal lane changes, check mirrors and follow motorcycles at a greater distance.
“We’re smaller and lighter, the motorcycles can stop more quickly,” Walters said.
Crash numbers underscore the urgency.
From March through June of last year, police departments in Berks County recorded 33 motorcycle‑involved crashes, one of them fatal. The county has reached that same total this year, with two fatalities.
One of this spring’s fatal crashes happened when one motorcycle rear-ended another in a group of motorcycle riders. The other, according to state police, involved a motorcycle driven by a man who was under the influence of an illegal drug colliding with the rear of an SUV that was stopped waiting for traffic to clear to turn left.
Calabria said inexperience remains a major factor.
He said it’s important to ride with confidence, and that comes with training and experience.
“Going through police training, that was one of the hardest courses that I’ve ever done,” he said of the 80‑hour certification program.
PennDOT’s Motorcycle Safety Program offers free basic and intermediate training at dozens of sites statewide, including Classic Harley‑Davidson in Bern Township. Successful completion waives the PennDOT skills test for permit holders.
“Whether you have your license or if you don’t have your license, we always suggest you take the course because you always learn something new,” Kyle MacBain, the dealership’s learn‑to‑ride liaison, told the Reading Eagle for a 2024 story on motorcycle safety.
Both officers also pointed to emerging hazards, including the rapid rise of high‑speed e‑bikes, e-scooters and other micromobility devices, many operated by children on roads as well as sidewalks. Regulations are murky at best. E-scooters, for example, are technically prohibited from roads and sidewalks, yet it’s common for kids to ride them to school.
Recent crashes — including a fatal collision involving an e‑bike and two motorcycles in Lehigh County — have heightened concerns.
“They should be on everybody’s radar,” Walters said.
As summer riding intensifies, Walters offered a final reminder aimed at riders and drivers.
“For the motorcycle riders, don’t outride your ability,” he said. “And for the operators of motor vehicles, just recognize and notice that we’re out here as well. And share the road.”