A tractor-trailer cut sharply in front of Nikki Cope's pink-trimmed Yamaha. The 23-year-old motorcyclist swerved and survived. But not everybody is as agile — or as lucky — on two wheels.
"I think we've all had some really serious close calls," said Cope, shaking her head as she recounted her most recent narrow escape during a motorcycle-awareness rally Sunday in east Orange County. "Motorcycles can be hard to see. They're small. But people are always in such a big hurry on the road. They don't take the time to look."
With the approach of Bike Week, Cope and three dozen fellow bikers waved signs and stood together in the cold at Colonial Drive and Rouse Road, urging people to be watchful for motorcycles and to look twice before changing lanes or turning right at a red light.
Bike Week, the 10-day, rumbling homage to Harleys that is reputed to be the world's largest motorcycle event, begins Friday in Daytona Beach, filling Central Florida's roadways with hundreds of thousands of visiting bikers.
Cope has a special reason to ask people to look cautiously when driving.
