Many of you including myself love to carry passengers of the back our motorcycle. Some even carry young children.
When carrying passengers on your motorcycle you have to take many more precautions than you do for passengers in a car.
First off it’s up to you to make sure that your passenger has proper riding gear and safety equipment.
If you are in an accident, there is a likelihood that you will be responsible for your passenger’s injuries and damages. Therefore, I always recommend making sure your passenger wears a full face helmet, good riding boots, heavy jeans, gloves, and a long-sleeved leather jacket or other type of protective jacket.
I know of four stories where riders have gone down with their wives in the back is passengers, and the wife got killed because she hit her head having no helmet on. Imagine standing there looking at your dead spouse knowing that she was still be alive if she had a helmet on.
Yes, I know many of you like to be comfortable on hot days, and like your passengers to look good, but it’s better to be safe.
It is important to instruct the passenger on how to get on the motorcycle, where to put their hands when riding, where to put their feet while riding, to never take their feet off the passenger pegs until you tell them it’s okay, and to not shift their weight around a lot when the motorcycle is moving slowly or at a stop.
I like to instruct passengers on tapping signals in case they want to stop or have to go to the bathroom. It’s really simple instruct the passenger to tap your shoulder one time if they need to stop, or to tap twice for anything else.
With modern Bluetooth attachments for full face helmets and open face helmets, it is very inexpensive to purchase Bluetooth solutions for both riders and passengers so that you can communicate via intercom while riding.
Taking the above precautions will make riding more pleasurable, and take a lot of pressure off of you while you’re riding your passenger around on the motorcycle.
Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq.
Attorney at Law, expert motorcycle accident lawyer
Founder injuredbikers.com