Riding Season

It's riding season again - for those who don't like the cold or who don't have the proper gear!  My friend Dennis in the desert sent me this information including the above picture.  Here all the motorcycles in the shot are in the truck driver's blind spot and can't be seen.  For those of us on two wheels the following applies.
 
When riding on highways, try not to "hang" around tractor trailers or any large trucks. Not only do they have a hard time seeing you, but there are other hazards associated with being near trucks, especially flatbeds and dump trucks which spew stones and pebbles behind them. Several times a year there are incidents of wheel separation from commercial vehicles resulting in the deaths of car drivers.
The stats below refer to Ontario, Canada, but there is no reason to believe it is any different anywhere in the World as these commercial carriers try to cut costs. Let's be safe out there.
TORONTO - Several Ontario police forces engaged a two-day traffic blitz in late June, pulling over 190 commercial vehicles deemed to be in need of a safety inspection. Overall, 40% of the total vehicles, which included flat-bed trucks, pickups, cube vans, straight transport trucks, and long-haul tractor-trailers, failed the inspection. And of those 76 vehicles that flunked the safety check, 36 were in bad enough shape to have their licence plates removed on the spot, deemed by police and Ministry of Transportation (MTO) officers to be a safety risk to other motorists on the road. A total of 199 provincial charges were laid. (Source: Toronto Sun)