Bikers hope city’s signs remind drivers to look twice
Motorcycle marker installed at intersection
Nearly every seasoned biker has one — a story, a scar, or perhaps even a patch embroidered with a name and two dates underneath.
Vincent Ferguson wears a patch like that.
It’s for his 22-year-old nephew Tavarius, who died in a motorcycle accident in 2011 just a few blocks from where a group gathered in Hickory Hill on Friday afternoon to unveil Memphis’ first motorcycle safety road sign.
The simple sign affixed to a streetlight at the corner of Winchester and Riverdale has a picture of a motorcycle and the words, “Look Twice, Save a Life” written on it to encourage drivers to be more aware of the motorcycles around them.
While there are similar signs in unincorporated county areas, this one is the first placed in Memphis city limits. It is the result of a threeyear crusade waged by a group known as Bikers and Social Clubs 4 Change.
“This has been a long time coming,” said Clark Chambers, an avid biker and member of the social justice group.
“I’m just glad I’m not crying right now,” Chambers said while the crew installed the sign. “Everybody knows we’ve buried ... I don’t even know how many.”
A declaration of remembrance was read in honor of the bikers who weren’t seen in time, bikers like Ta- Clark “Preacha” Chambers (center) celebrates with Ken McCrary of the Memphis Boss Riders after the installation of the city’s first motorcycle awareness sign Friday.
varius, for whom this sign acts as a kind of secret, surrogate memorial. Following the reading they released six doves that circled in a flock overhead before flying home.
The intersection has, for reasons Chambers wasn’t quite sure of, been the site of an unusually high number of motorcycle fatalities, hence the sign’s deliberate placement at the busy intersection.
“All the credit here goes to the bikers for change organization,” said city traf- fic engineer Ken Johnson. With help from Concerned Motorcyclists of Tennessee, the group secured state funding to pay for the signs, according to Johnson.
“There are more signs on the way” he said. “We’ll be getting those up as soon as time allows.”
The most important goal, according to BSC4C press manager Letitia Robertson, is to make sure the signs are up in time for spring, when riding season kicks back into high gear.
“We’re not exaggerating that when the weather breaks, we know to keep the black suits ready for the funerals,” Robertson said.
Motorcycle safety is a deeply personal issue for Robertson, whose husband’s motorcycle accident could have been prevented had a driver looked more carefully before changing lanes on the interstate.
“As he was skidding across the pavement, the driver of a truck saw what was happening and followed behind him to block other cars from hitting him, and probably saved his life,” she said.
“We don’t know who it was, and we never got to say ‘thank you,’ but he was our angel that day.”