South San Francisco, CA July 11, 2016 Submitted by SSF Police Department 
This weekend, specially trained officers from the South San Francisco Police Department’s traffic unit will be out looking for impaired motorcyclists and other unsafe driving violations as part of the Ride Sober or Get Pulled Over drunk-riding crackdown. This effort is part of the larger national Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over high visibility enforcement campaign that combines intense enforcement of impaired-driving laws with advertising and media outreach to let all drivers and riders know about the enforcement and convince them to obey the law.
In 2014, 4,586 motorcyclists (4,311 riders and 275 passengers) were killed in motor vehicle crashes – a decrease of 2 percent from the 4,692 motorcyclists killed in 2013. Unfortunately, there were an estimated 92,000 motorcyclists injured in 2014 -a 5-percent increase from the 88,000 motorcyclists injured in 2013. Even though motorcycles account for about 3 percent of registered vehicles on the road, motorcyclists are dramatically overrepresented in fatal crashes – especially those involving alcohol.
“The facts speak for themselves; nationally in 2014, the majority of riders killed in vehicle crashes were drunk, between the ages of 35 and 49, on motorcycles with 1,001-1,500 cc and higher engine sizes, riding on the weekend between midnight and 3 a.m.,” said South San Francisco Police Lieutenant Keith Wall. “Riding while impaired puts you and every other road user at risk, and that’s just wrong. So if you drink and ride, we will see you, stop you, arrest you, and impound your motorcycle.”
“A lot of people don’t know that many of the alcohol-related fatal crashes are single-vehicle crashes that involve only the motorcycle,” said Lieutenant Wall. ”In fact, 43 percent of the 1,803 motorcyclists who died in single-vehicle crashes in 2014 were alcohol impaired. Sixty-two percent of those killed in single-vehicle crashes on weekend nights were alcohol impaired.
Several solo motorcycle fatal collisions have occurred in South San Francisco in the last few years.”
It appears that riding while drunk often goes hand-in-hand with other unsafe riding habits: in 2014, the reported helmet use rate for alcohol impaired motorcyclists was 51 percent as compared to 67 percent for those with no alcohol. Remember, if you don’t ride sober, you will get pulled over.
For more information about motorcycle safety, please visit www.nhtsa.gov/Safety/Motorcycles.