The season has changed for the warmer and for the better in Cincinnati. With warmer weather and longer days, many motorcycles that have spent the winter hibernating inside garages are returning to Ohio roads and highways.

Public awareness campaigns designed to increase driver awareness of motorcyclists on the roads have been successful over the past few years. However, because many drivers have not seen a motorcycle in several months, it can be easy for drivers to revert to old habits and to cause motorcycle accidents.

Motorcyclists have the same rights to the roads that four-wheeled passenger vehicles and trucks do. However, many drivers fail to see motorcyclists. All too often, a driver will cause a collision with a motorcycle, only to blame the motorcyclist or claim that the motorcyclist could not be seen. Very often, when a driver says, "I couldn't see the motorcycle" that means the driver simply did not look for a motorcycle.

Unfortunately, many drivers have fallen into the wintertime habit of not looking for motorcycles. As a result, police routinely see an increase of motorcycle accidents in the spring and early summer. When motorcycle accident attorneys investigate this type of accident and reconstruct what happened, they routinely find that the driver did not look for a motorcycle and violated the motorcyclist's right of way.

Motorcycle riders are especially vulnerable to severe injuries when they are involved with a collision with a vehicle. With that in mind, it is especially important for drivers to pay attention to the road and to all of the traffic, including trucks, cars, bicycles, pedestrians, and motorcycles, around them.

Source: WDTN.com, "Time to watch for motorcycles," 4/7/2011