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State Pushes For Motorcycle Safety

CHICAGO (WBBM) -- Illinois is trying to make a point about cycle safety with the name of its new campaign: Start Seeing Motorcycles.'

Motorcycle Training Coordinator Joe Lindsey says for four or five months now, motorists haven't had to worry much about motorcyclists. Most had their cycles parked in the garage.

Now, with sunshine showing up and warmer weather promised, the cyclists will be returning to state roads where about 130 have died every year for the last three.

Lindsey says Illinois is offering courses at 63 locations throughout the state for both novices, and intermediate riders with some time under their belt.

And one of the things impressed on the cyclists is that a lot of car drivers just don't see them.

Lindsey says it's important to know that 93 perecnt of all motorcycle fatalities occur in clear weather on dry pavement, and 35 percent of all motorcyclists who died in road crashes had been drinking.

Lindsey is trying to boost numbers attending the state training course in an effort to reduce number of motorcycle fatalities that have been stuck at 130 a year for the last three years.

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