The Motorcycle Safety Program strongly emphasizes the role played by law enforcement and emergency service personnel in motorcycle safety. State and local law enforcement personnel enforce motor vehicle laws and emergency services personnel respond to crashes involving motorcyclists. The goal of the Motorcycle Safety Strategic Plan (MSSP) is to ensure state and local motorcycle safety programs include law enforcement and emergency services components.
The plan identifies the following strategies to achieve this goal:
- Encourage all law enforcement agencies to develop agency goals specific to motorcycle safety.
- Incorporate motorcycle safety into law enforcement education.
- Incorporate a motorcycle enforcement component into relevant education and enforcement campaigns.
- Partner with emergency services and trauma centers to provide public education on motorcycle safety.
Special training should also be offered to law enforcement on detecting an impaired rider. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has developed the following cues that indicate there is a 50 percent or greater probability that the rider is impaired:
- Drifting during turn or curve.
- Trouble with dismount.
- Trouble with balance at a stop.
- Turning problems (e.g., unsteady, sudden corrections, late braking, improper lean angle).
- Inattentive to surroundings.
- Inappropriate or unusual behavior (e.g., carrying or dropping object, urinating at roadside, disorderly conduct, etc.).
- Weaving.
Cues that indicate there is a 30 to 50 percent probability of impairment include the following:
- Erratic movements while going straight.
- Operating without lights at night.
- Recklessness.
- Following too closely.
- Running stop light or sign.
- Evasion.
- Wrong way.
Florida Law Enforcement Liaison
The Florida Law Enforcement Liaison (LEL) Program is a grant funded program sponsored by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTHSA). The goal of the LEL program is to reduce traffic related fatalities and injuries by working with law enforcement agencies across the state to boost safety belt use, reduce drunk driving and encourage traffic safety initiatives.
These programs have been designed to promote traffic safety through increased enforcement, reducing the number of overall crashes, and increasing the seat belt usage rate. Proven by research, it is well known that an increase in traffic enforcement in a community results in a decrease in motor vehicle crashes, injuries, and fatalities. In fact, no other single program or strategy works as well as law enforcement in making the roads safer. These programs complement all training and public information programs that the FDOT and NHTSA implement to promote traffic safety.