Garfield OKs Motorcycle Awareness Signs

Garfield Township is supporting an effort by a grieving mother to place motorcycle awareness signs along Traverse City area roads to remind drivers to share the road with two-wheeled travelers.

Karen Robinson asked the Township Board to support her campaign to place the blue and white signs urging motorists to “Look Twice, Save a Life” along main roads in the township. The signs cost $80 each and Robinson said the first order will be 50 signs. While the township board unanimously voted to support the sign campaign, no money was allocated for the project.

Robinson’s son Erik Johnson was fatally injured in a crash at Munson and Avenue B on Aug. 7, 2012. “Erik’s Awareness Ride,” a motorcycle ride to raise funds for the sign campaign, is set for May 17. It will start in Rapid City and end in Traverse City with a brief stop at the intersection where Johnson died. According to Robinson, Garfield Township had 10 motorcycle accidents in 2012 and 7 in 2013.