SALISBURY, Md.- An international event to promote cyclist safety is coming to Salisbury today, May 17. The Ride of Silence honors cyclists who were killed or injured by a vehicle and spreads awareness about the importance of biker safety. Organizer Saraleigh Monroe says the responsibility is on everyone to keep the roads safe.
"It’s really important to know or to understand that we all need to be careful and that we all need to practice safety, because we are sharing the roads," Monroe said. "We know we’re vulnerable, we know it’s hard to see us. Sometimes we know that you have to focus hard on what you’re doing as a driver to make sure that you see anything in the street or road that we need to avoid.
"I don’t think any driver wants to live with the memory of 'Oh yeah, that’s the sound of me hitting a person.'"
The 5 mile bike ride begins and ends at the government building in downtown Salisbury. Registration is not needed, but helmets are required. Salisbury bike shop owner and cyclist Buz Carragher says the issue is near and dear to him as well.
"I was doing 29.8 miles per hour... and a driver ran me off the road. I went airborne and landed on the back of my skull, crushed my helmet in eight places, two brain bleeds, permanent brainstem damage, broken clavicle, broke six ribs down the spiral column and I was in a coma for seven days," said Carragher. "I could have touched him with my hand. He was so close to me and it’s unsafe. I paid the price for it and he gets away with no problems at all."
WBOC will be present at today's Ride of Silence with our very own Steve Hammond set to MC the event.
Cyclist safety is an issue that resonates deeply with all of us at WBOC and Draper Media, as longtime owner Thomas Draper was tragically killed in 2017 in a cycling accident near Milford. Draper was a cycling enthusiast who made it a point to ride his bike every morning.
The Ride of Silence begins at 6:00 pm.
