The Lloydminster Sport Riders are placing a ghost bike in the city to honour a young man who died in a motorcycle crash in June.
The bike will be put up north of 36th Street on 59th Avenue on July 30th at around 7 p.m. The riders will be driving through the city ahead of time to show support for the project.
Lloydminster Sport Riders member Philip Cummine says he wasn’t close to the young man, but some of the club members were and a death in the community affects everyone.
“Because he was a fellow rider, he was close to all of us in that sense. We all share the road and all go through the same issues and deal with the same problems,” he says. “It affects every rider in the same way. It makes you realize that you’re not invincible and anything can happen in a moments notice.”
The group organized a memorial ride to help raise money for the family as well.
The bike will stay there until the end of August as both a memorial and to help raise awareness of motorcycle safety. Cummine says the club saw ghost bikes project in Edmonton and other cities which he says has been effective in increasing traffic safety around motorcycles.
“When they first started putting them out there was quite a few and as ghost bikes were going out and being more mainstream, you starting seeing they weren’t being placed as often.”
It will act as a reminder for both riders and vehicle drivers to slow down, be aware of their surroundings and think of others on the road.
The ghost bike will be brought out in May for Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month and placed in different parts of Lloydminster. Cummine says he wants the bike brought out more as an awareness piece rather than a memorial.
“The less we see it, the better it is. We should see it during Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month because then it will be bringing the awareness out to people driving cars. As a memorial piece, we don’t want to see it out very often. I don’t want to go to the extent of putting this thing out on a regular basis.”
He says keeping the bike out in the same place or for too long then it may lessen the impact of the awareness and family members of the deceased may not want a memorial set-up.
“Maybe [the family of the deceased] don’t want that constant reminder or maybe that doesn’t bother them and look at it as a positive thing, but it’s just something you don’t want to see everyday.”
Cummine says the main goal of the bike is to have a positive impact on the community.