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MESA, Ariz. (KSAZ) - During the past few days, we've had at least four accidents involving motorcycles and it's a disturbing trend.
We're getting to the tail end of peak riding season, but still seeing so many collisions. At a motorcycle safety school, their staff says the reason is two fold: motorcyclists not taking basic precautions, such as wearing a helmet and drivers assuming that just because the bikes are small, they can get out of harm's way.
Motorcyclists are squeezing a few final rides before 115° temperatures -- but not every ride ends safely at home.
"It's normally the driver's fault whenever an accident happens.. normally somebody is usually merging over or pulling out without looking twice," said Kenny Enloe of Desert Wind Harley-Davidson in Mesa.
Enloe is the General Sales Manager at Desert Wind, which is home to Harley-Davidson Riding Academy. Here, students spend three days learning to maneuver through danger.
"You get up into second gear by the time you get to one end and they'll randomly put their hand up like something came out in front of you," explained John Engen, Operations Manager at Desert Wind.
Engen says many new students are terrified of cars and rightfully so. In the past week alone, four motorcycles were involved in valley crashes, two were fatal.
"If you kind of box one in if you've got a vehicle to the left of the motorcycle, one in front and one behind, he has nowhere to go. That's not good. I mean, if you can maybe slow down and let the motorcycle get around or speed up," said Enloe.
In Arizona, there's no minimum requirement for training hours, so Enloe says riders need to help themselves by taking safety courses, ideally wearing a full-face helmet and ditching the summer shorts.
"If everyone would just pay attention and look for the motorcycles and know, hey I'm going to pull out of this intersection, look over here, look back and then look one more time just to make sure there's not a bike coming, it could potentially save somebody's life," he said.