Motorcycle registration now required on LRAFB.

  • Published
  • By the 19th Airlift Wing Ground Safety Office
Officials implemented a program April 29 requiring all Department of Defense-employed motorcycle riders be registered before being allowed to ride on base.

The program, which is mandatory for all military and DoD civilian employees and strongly encouraged for all contractors and dependents, will provide a means to identify the "skill" of a rider through the use of a color-coded sticker.

Lt. Col. Chip Brown, 19th Airlift Wing chief of safety, said that by May 28, all riders will need to register with the wing safety office and receive a sticker. The stickers must be placed on the rear of the motorcycle on a frame around the license plate.

The safety office will be providing frames, free of charge, to any rider who needs one. Arkansas state law prohibits the sticker from being placed directly on the license plate.

Colonel Brown said there are more than 700 riders on Little Rock Air Force Base, and more than 70,000 in the state of Arkansas, but that the base accounts for 10 percent of all fatalities here annually. This new safety initiative - the first of its kind in Air Mobility Command - will allow officials to better track which riders have been through the appropriate safety courses.

Sticker colors will denote the class-level of each rider. Blue means the basic rider course has been completed, silver is for those who have completed the experienced rider course, orange denotes riders who have completed the sport bike course and yellow is for instructors, mentors and coaches.

After May 29, anyone caught riding on base without a sticker can be ticketed as a "secondary infraction." This is much like the late 1990s, when security forces members were able to ticket drivers not wearing seatbelts if they were stopped for another infraction such as speeding.

Contracted gate guards on base will take down the information of any rider entering base without a sticker and channel that information to the member's chain of command and the safety office.

Anyone desiring to drive their motorcycle on base will have until May 29 to register. This means riders who have not completed at least the basic course must register now and complete the course in order to receive a sticker.

More information is available through the 19th Airlift Wing Safety Office at 987-3490 or the 189th Airlift Wing safety office by contacting Senior Master Sgt. Gary Ash at 987-7959. (Courtesy of the 19th Airlift Wing Safety Office)