The RoadAwareness Campaign is proud to have been covered by the media several times, not only locally where it began in Southern Ontario but the word is now spreading across North America and the rest of the world. Our website is now being viewed by visitors from around the globe. Here is some of the media coverage we’ve gotten so far:

http://www.roadawareness.org/about-us/media-coverage/

In addition to awareness rallies, RoadAwareness also performed a Distracted Driving Experiment to highlight the dangers of using your cell phone while driving and was successful in showing that hands-free kits are really no safer than using a hand-held phone while talking. In addition, the results of texting while driving were jaw-dropping. All of the participants were far more likely to loose control of their vehicles and hit obstacles…and most did. Click here for more details…

RoadAwareness is joining forces with some great partners in 2010. We are also pleased to announce our involvement in Belt Drive Betty’s Awareness Conga to the Wharf Rat Rally in Digby, Nova Scotia. For more information on this rally, please check out and join this group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=291129346434

We hope to assist with arranging various awareness rallies along their route across the country. Stay tuned and join us along the way.

Another notable mention is the establishment of some great working relationships with Young Drivers of Canada, the Traffic Services Division of Toronto Police Services and Queensway AUDI. We continue to solidify these alliances and look forward to working with them further in 2010. Developing new relationships, on an ongoing basis, is a primary focus for us.

Please join the the Facebook Group and be sure to invite all your friends to check out our website and join our Facebook group as road safety affects us all. Safer roads begin with safer drivers!

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It all started in the wee hours Saturday morning when I went to bed at 1:30am but a restful night wasn’t going to happen. Perhaps I was excited about the day to come, perhaps it was my thoughts were filled about Stella and her trip to Colorado but for the life of me, I couldn’t sleep. At 3am I layed awake in bed and gave up on trying to sleep altogether.

I hopped in the shower and prepared for a long day. After prepping my bike with snacks, water and the banner & decals for RoadAwareness.ca, I hit the road around 4:30am on my way to Port Dover.

About a week earlier, I was invited to attend the Girlz Ride to Dover as a guest speaker to talk about road safety and awareness and to promote the third RoadAwareness.ca Rally of the year the next day.

I arrived in Port Dover around 6:30am and although much of the town was still sleeping soundly, some of the locals had already made their way to the beach where I decided to park my bike. Although I wasn’t tired, I decided to stretch out on a picnic bench by the beach to rest my eyes. In the background I could hear local businesses preparing for the day punctuated with the occasional Harley passing on nearby streets. Although with those loud pipes, they could of been several streets away.

After a couple hours of relaxing with my thoughts, I decided to walk around town and eventually made my way over to where the Girlz Ride was to meet up and offered to assist local businesses in setting up their tents. The feature sponsor was “On the Fringe” which sells various riding gear, most of which is for women.

Eventually the lady riders showed up in the early afternoon, rather late from some highway closures they encountered along the way from their ride in from Toronto. By this point, I was getting tired having not gotten more then an hour of sleep and despite consuming lots of water, the heat was getting to me as the mercury climbed and with the humidity it felt like 38 Celsius. We were all very hot and sticky and the river that ran beside us was looking pretty good as I became tempted to jump in fully clothed just to cool down.

Eventually the time came for me to speak to the crowd about RoadAwareness.ca and safe riding in general and not long afterward everyone dispersed. I packed up my banner and decals and made my way to Mansfield to my buddy John’s place for a BBQ. He was having some fellow riders over after hosting his own ride for newer riders so they could become comfortable with all that’s involved with riding in a group, which can be daunting for newbies.

Around 10pm I figured it was time to excuse myself and head home. I needed to at least try and get a few hours of sleep before my big RoadAwareness rally the next morning. I didn’t really want to part such good company and lively discussions we were all sharing about our various riding adventures but if I didn’t get some rest, I knew I would be a wreck the next day and I really needed to be on my “A” game.

I arrived home around midnight and wouldn’t you know it…I couldn’t sleep. Once again, I didn’t get to bed until about 1am and was wide awake by 7am. This wasn’t looking good. Once again I prepped my bike and headed off to the first rally point in North York. When I arrived, I was greeted by my support team from MotoLimo.com. Once again, they gave up part of their weekend and both of their custom motorcycle support trucks (not to mention gas) to follow us around all day in support of the cause. If any rider needed help, they were there following us.

We departed North York with about 60 riders and headed out on to the highway towards our mid-way rally point in the town of Simcoe (just north of Port Dover). Along the way we picked up about 15 more riders who were waiting on the side of the highway for us to pass.

Two hours and two construction zones later, we finally arrived at BS Custom Motorcycles in Simcoe. Our gratious hosts (owners of BS Custom), greeted us with lots of cold water and soft drinks that came in very handy for our dehydrated and fatigued riders. Once again, the heat was pushing 40 degrees and everyone was feeling it. Most riders headed off for lunch while I stayed behind to talk to a local reporter from the Simcoe Reformer.

After doing a raffle for prizes donated by On The Fringe, Vision Cycle and Kahuna Powersports, it was time to hit the road in an attempt to keep to our schedule. I was hoping to reach our final destination in Brampton by 4pm. As it turned out, we only arrived 30min late.

We pulled into the parking lot of Formula Kartways to a prior arranged stunt show along with the attendance of Peel Regional Police who arrived to show their support of the RoadAwareness.ca campaign. Although, they did express some concerns about the stunt riding and the lack of an ambulance and even though it was being done on private property, they found themselves in an awkward position. Considering the support they’ve shown for my campaign and not wanting to alienate them, I ended the stunt show.

All in all, it was a great weekend despite the insane heat. I ended up doing two motorcycle events, passed through countless cities and towns, clocked over 700kms and suffered a touch of heat stroke and some serious fatigue.

More riding is yet to come!
.

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http://www.rogerstv.com/option.asp?rid=51&lid=16&tid=27804&arid=51

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Sunday August 16th marked the third Awareness Rally of 2009 and once again it was a huge success. About 60 riders met up at the starting point in North York in a parking lot adjacent to a local riding school as they prepared for their Ministry test later in the day. Once again, our sponsors MotoLimo.com were on hand and followed us the whole day in their specialized service vehicles should any rider require assistance.

We headed off as one fairly large group and made our way onto the highway. Our route was fairly simple with the first half on the major highways, followed by secondary highways once we cleared Hamilton. We even picked up more than a dozen riders along the way who were waiting for us to pass by near Oakville bringing our numbers to nearly 90 bikes. Unfortunately we came up on traffic as we negotiated a few construction zones and we got split up into smaller groups as we expected would happen.

Eventually, most of us made it to the mid point in Simcoe where we were greeted by our gracious hosts Brent and Sheri, owners of BS Custom Motorcycle. Cold water and soft drinks were a very welcome sight considering the sweltering heat nearing 40c with the humidity. There was even fresh coffee, although that was mostly for them as they waited for us in the much cooler shade for our arrival.

When we pulled in, we found a mock crash scene setup right at the end of their driveway, with an SUV parked with an old wrecked dirt bike laying in front of it and a mannequin laying on the hood representing an injured rider. This certainly caught the attention of many drivers passing by. That along with many signs that had been erected saying, “Look Twice – Save a Life” and “Share the Road” helped drive home the message that we were trying to send. Road safety affects us all and it starts with safer, more attentive motorists.

Many riders headed down the street to grab some lunch while I hung out with our hosts and talked to a reporter from a local newspaper. Once everyone returned, we held a raffle for various prizes donated by On The Fringe (Port Dover), Kahuna Powersports (Toronto) and Vision Cycle (Milton).

Special thanks go to the Simcoe OPP for blocking a lane for all of us to depart BS Custom in a safe manner. We continued our rally passing through, Brantford and Cambridge, heading for our final destination at Formula Kartways in Brampton where we were entertained by the amazing control and skills of some performance riders including “Country” from CIX (all the way from Illinois), and Jeff Kacan from Twisted Intentions. Once again Peel Regional Police showed up to show their support of the RoadAwareness campaign, however due to some concerns they had, I agreed to shut down the show to alleviate the somewhat awkward position they found themselves in. In all fairness to them, they support what we are doing as a whole but didn’t want to be in a position of watching someone get hurt during the stunt show.

I was once again reminded that despite the opinions of some of our fellow motorcyclists, the police aren’t just out to get us every chance they get and our relationship with them certainly has room for improvement. It’s amazing what can come out of having open, candid and rational discussions. I would even go so far as to say that they would like to improve relationships between them and the motorcycling community. We can do our part by not riding irresponsibly and offering up a touch more respect.

All in all it was a fantastic day and a great ride. By the end though, nearly everyone was feeling the effects of fatigue, dehydration and a touch of heat stroke.

A special thanks goes out to Sandra Dawson from my team who organized all the details of the Simcoe rally point. Her efforts were key in making our stop at BS Custom Motorcycle a huge success. Additional thanks go out to Lori from 2 Wheel Promotions for helping to spread the word about the event and to Formula Kartways for allowing us to use their parking lot while they undergo some renovations. Lastly, thank you to those who volunteered to lead the groups.

Stay tuned for our future events. We hope to hold another rally near the end of the season and 2010 is shaping up to be a great year with a massive Scavenger Hunt style event already in the works.

Shaun de Jager
Founder
RoadAwareness.ca

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Motorcyclists from across the GTA gathered Sunday at Square One and Yorkdale shopping centres to remind drivers to be cautious when sharing the road with bikes.

About 200 bikers attended the Road Awareness Rally, which began at Yorkdale at 10 a.m. Participants then rode to Square One at 10:30 a.m., where they rallied for an hour before breaking into smaller groups and riding to Woodbridge AMC Theatre.

Shaun de Jager, a Toronto motorcyclist who led a similar rally in March near Hurontario St. and Eglinton Ave., told The News earlier that there have been too many fallen riders on the roads this season. He said the ride and rally was meant to remind people to drive more cautiously when sharing the road with motorcyclists. “One motorcycle can be hard to see, but when over 200 bikes ride together, that stops traffic,” said de Jager.

For more information, visit http://www.roadawareness.ca/.
jle@mississauga.net

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March 19, 2009 10:42 PM – About 50 motorcyclists from across the Greater Toronto Area gathered for a rally tonight near the intersection of Hurontario St. and Eglinton Ave. – the scene of an horrific crash – to remind drivers to be cautious when sharing the road with motorcycles.

With their bikes lined between the road and the sidewalk, the bikers waved signs that read: “Look twice! Save a life!” The rally ran from 7:30-9 p.m.

Shaun de Jager, a Toronto motorcyclist who heard about the accident on an online social forum, said many members of the group are outraged by the accident and sorry for the motorcyclist and his passenger, who suffered serious injuries but are expected to live.

“Unfortunately we’ve all had close calls,” said de Jager, who organized the rally. “Riding a motorcycle does have its inherent dangers, but so does everything in life and these are risks that we take as cautiously as we can.”

Mississauga resident Majid Hashemi was at the nearby Second Cup when the crash occurred yesterday. He had just ben out on his motorcycle and the incident really hit home.

“It’s right by my house and this patch of pavement, I ride on it everyday.” said the 27-year-old, pointing to the spot where the crash happened.

Police are looking into the possibility that the driver of the SUV may have illegally entered the busy Mississauga intersection during rush-hour yesterday.

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March 19, 2009 12:20 PM – Police are looking into witness accounts that the driver of an SUV illegally entered a busy Mississauga intersection yesterday before crashing into a motorcycle, sending the driver and his passenger to hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Peel Regional Police said today that the motorcyclist, 30, and his female passenger, 22, are expected to live following the rush-hour collision at Hurontario St. and Eglinton Ave.

Motorcyclists from across the GTA are outraged. Several will be at a rally tonight at the intersection because they believe there needs to be increased awareness among drivers of larger vehicles to be cautious sharing the road with motorcyclists. Police will also be at the rally.

“The weather is warming and more and more riders are on the roads. This tragic incident should be a reminder to all that cars share the roads with bikes and that we must all be aware of each other,” said Shaun de Jager, an avid motorcyclist who organized the rally. “There is no excuse for paying anything less than 100 per cent attention to the road and our surroundings.”

The motorcyclist was airlifted to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto after his Suzuki collided with a Honda CRV at about 5 p.m.

Peel Cst. J.P. Valade said the man’s condition has improved. He has serious leg injuries, but is expected to survive.

The passenger was initially taken to Credit Valley Hospital. She was also transferred to Sunnybrook. She, too, is expected to live.

The 62-year-old female driver of the SUV was not injured.

Officers with the Major Collision Bureau are investigating whether the woman entered the intersection improperly, believing she had an advanced green light to make a left turn.

The accident brought traffic to a halt, as police closed off a large area surrounding the intersection. Lane closures lasted well into the night.

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I will be heading up the night before and riding with hundreds of others on June 20th, who are supporting research to fight blindness.

You can help support us by making a secure online donation. Click on the link below:

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=1830014

For more information on how YOU can participate in Ride for Sight, please visit us at www.rideforsight.com.

Thanks for your support

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