WATCH ABOVE: Safety Services New Brunswick says the province needs to set stricter regulations and higher standards for training new riders. Global’s Shelley Steeves reports.
FREDERICTON – Safety Services New Brunswick says the province needs to set stricter regulations and higher standards for training of new motorcycle riders.
The non-profit agency has been offering motorcycle training courses in the province for 40 years.
“The two things that will save your life are collision, avoidance and emergency breaking. And those are not things that are not intuitive,” said Bill Walker with Safety Services N.B.
“They need to be taught and they need to be practiced in a controlled environment.”
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Which, Walker says, their fully-certified instructors do through their training course. But he also believes that once a new rider completes a mandatory course and is granted a graduated license, they should be restricted to practice their skills on a less powerful bike for their first year on the road.
“Where Safety Services has concerns is there is no maximum size for the 12 months period and we feel that there should be a maximum size of 650cc or a motorcycle engine not to exceed 150 kilowatts per tonne,” he said.
But the registrar of the province’s motor vehicle branch says they have no plans to restrict what size of bike new riders choose.
“We wanted to make sure that the reforms that were put in place dealt with how drivers behave on the road, the decision making, and so the emphasis was placed on a mandatory program with a strong curriculum with standards that would guide the driver training schools in how they provide training to those individuals,” said registrar Chris O’Connell.
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But he says the new legislation has had some growing pains.
There are four training schools in the province. But, since the program is so new, not all of the instructors giving courses are fully-certified to teach yet.
“Some of them haven’t all completed all of the portions of the instructor training and they are in the process of going though that right now,” he said.
Walking believes that all instructors should be fully-certified before ever being allowed to teach.
“I appreciate that these are growing pains that will resolve themselves over time but again our concern is now,” he said.
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