The mother of a P.E.I. man killed in a motorcycle crash in June has come forward, urging people to be more aware of motorcycles when driving on the highway.
Dustin Lord, 24, died when the driver of an SUV made a left turn into oncoming traffic.
His mother, Cheryl Lord of Bedeque, said drivers need to be more aware.
“People don’t see bikes, they don’t look for bikes,” said Lord.
Four people on motorcycles have died in accidents on P.E.I. highways this year. Dustin Lord’s fiancé, Nicole Heffell, agrees with his mother that many accidents could be prevented if drivers were simply a little more cautious.
“You need to kind of step back to that mindset of when you first got your licence, and you were cautious and you were nervous,” said Heffel.
“Maybe we do need a little bit of that caution.”
The accident rate in Nova Scotia has also been bad, with nine dead in motorcycle collisions.
Ed Snow, motorcycle training manager for Safety Services Nova Scotia, said it will take more than driver caution to bring that accident rate down. He would like to see signs reminding drivers of the return of motorcycles to the highways.
“People tend to forget,” said Snow.
“After October they don’t see motorcycles again till April, May or June. They tend to forget that they’re out there, so I think we need to get more signage out there, you know more education and more awareness.”
Snow also said new bikers shouldn’t be allowed to own big fast motorcycles until they have some experience.