Road rageous

In the wake of a car crash that killed a fellow rider, local motorcyclists say it's time for drivers to watch where they're going

by Sarah McNaught

CITYSCAPE

It was just minutes before 10 a.m. on a clear Sunday last June when 28-year-old Paul Shifone steered his Harley-Davidson along River Street, in Hyde Park.

He was in no big hurry. Shifone, a short man with dark hair, dark eyes, and a beaming smile, cruised along on his way to join more than 300 fellow members of the Hyde Park Harley Riders (HPHR) for a fundraising ride to benefit a group that sends kids with AIDS to summer camp.

On an open stretch of road near the Dedham town line, Shifone spotted a white Dodge traveling in the opposite direction. Before he knew it, the car turned left into a driveway, cutting him off.

Police reports say Shifone skidded to miss the car and flew off his bike, hitting the other vehicle's rear wheel head-on. The driver was David DiNardi, chief administrative law judge for the US Department of Labor.

Shifone suffered massive head injuries and died three days later at Brigham and Women's Hospital, leaving behind a fiancée and an eight-year-old son. DiNardi will appear in West Roxbury District Court on April 27 to face charges of vehicular homicide, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and failure to yield.

More than 120 motorcyclists gathered at Shifone's funeral to remember a man they call generous and responsible -- a man who thought nothing of lending a friend money to start a business. And though they hope to see DiNardi convicted, they want more. The Hyde Park Harley Riders are now lobbying to have motorcycle awareness added to the state-required drivers'-education course. Two local officials who have traffic proposals pending have agreed to consider their demands.

Between 1994 and 1997, an average of 30 motorcyclists were killed and 1068 injured in Massachusetts each year, according to the Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV). Fifty-three percent of those fatalities and 76 percent of the injuries involved another vehicle -- usually a car or truck, bikers say. Motorcyclists say that they've done all they can to bring the casualties down; now, they argue, it's the drivers' turn to look out for them.

It seems ironic that motorcyclists, a notoriously anti-establishment subculture, should call for more regulations. But Donald Falcione, president of the HPHR, disputes that perception. "Sure, there are national campaigns against helmet laws and the illegality of loud pipes, and some riders agree and some don't," says Falcione, a business owner who has been riding for well over 30 years. "But calling for safety-awareness classes for everyone who holds a license, whether it be for a car or a bike, is common sense.

"We are not outlaws flapping our gums because friends of ours were killed," he adds. "We are responsible riders who feel the overall aggressiveness on the road has to be dealt with."

Brook Chipman, spokesman for the Governor's Highway Safety Bureau, admits that the drivers'-ed course approved by the RMV barely addresses the issue of cars sharing the road with motorcycles, and that much of the riders'-education program teaches motorcyclists to consider themselves 100 percent responsible for their safety on the road.

"Motorcyclists must drive defensively," Chipman explains. "It may seem unfair to riders, but . . . they are a smaller, more reachable group than the three and a half million automobile-license holders that are out there." Massachusetts is home to 244,000 licensed motorcyclists and 95,000 registered motorcycles.

The RMV is now revamping the state drivers'-education curriculum, says Chipman, and it's scheduled to be completed by June 15. But Mark Whitehouse, a driving-school owner who has seen the American Automobile Association-produced text that the courses will use, says that less than two pages of the book is devoted to motorcycles. Only one paragraph covers motorcycle awareness for drivers; the rest focuses on bikers' responsibilities.

Motorcycle riders say they have shouldered those responsibilities. Since the riders'-education program was launched in 1990, motorcycle fatalities have decreased 46 percent and injuries have gone down 30 percent, according to Chipman. He credits the safety course and the "graying of the motorcycle community" for the decrease. "We are dealing with an older, more mature group of riders who own homes and have families," he says.

On a cool spring night a few weeks ago, more than 100 riders, ranging from their early 20s to their mid 50s, gathered at Hyde Park's Cavan Café. Outside, rows of chrome-covered customized Harley-Davidsons lined the road -- each buffed and primed in anticipation of the new riding season. Inside, leather- and denim-clad members of the Hyde Park Harley Riders -- business owners, police officers, grandparents -- hugged and joked with friends they hadn't seen in nearly a year.

In one corner, 28-year-old Steven Smigliani, a Boston police officer who has been riding for nearly two years, talked with Donald Falcione about the stigma that surrounds motorcyclists.

"People automatically think of outlaw biker gangs that started in the '30s and '40s -- you know, the Hell's Angels type of riders," said Smigliani, a tall, soft-spoken man with a Marine-style haircut. "It's an unfair representation of the population that causes disrespect on the road."

"They [drivers] constantly turn in front of us or change lanes without acknowledging that we are beside them," says 32-year-old Joe Manning, a 17-year riding veteran who was injured in a 1997 accident similar to the one that killed Shifone.

"I went for a ride with state troopers and I couldn't believe the egregious offenses that I saw," says state representative Vincent Ciampa (D-Somerville), who has spoken with the HPHR in connection with a proposed amendment to the 1996 aggressive-driving law that he's brought before the Committee on Public Safety. Ciampa's bill would crack down on driving violations that motorcyclists say are often the cause of accidents between cars and motorcycles.

Motorcyclists could also get support from Boston city councilor Francis "Mickey" Roache, who wants the city to revive the Boston Police Traffic Division -- a collaboration between police and the transportation department that last existed in the early '70s -- whose job would be to enforce the traffic laws. Roache has agreed to meet with the HPHR about the drivers'-education proposal but warns that motorcyclists must be prepared to make concessions as well.

"Sure, there are incompetent motorcyclists out there who ride the lines and pass cars in between lanes -- we are not denying that," says HPHR member Paula Catarius, a tall brunette whose deep, commanding voice belies her sweet disposition. "That's why we think everyone should be educated. We don't want to scare car drivers with loud pipes and beaming headlights. But, when it comes down to it, a person sitting on a bike is no match for a person surrounded on four sides by steel reinforcements. We just ask that they be taught not to use their cars as weapons."

Sarah McNaught can be reached at smcnaught[a]phx.com.