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Rosa Carbó has been riding a motorcycle for 17 years and makes prudence at the handlebars her best flag: “If I don’t see it clearly, I don’t move forward, there may be a broken line and visibility that I don’t move forward. I’m always cautious because it’s my life, what I’m playing with.” Riding on two wheels carries risks and Rosa warns: “It’s not because you run more that you’re better, you don’t have to prove anything. You run more and then a dog, a boar or a car comes out of the way, any unforeseen… Speed ??makes a difference in the reaction of the brakes. You need to think more with your head and less with your fist.”
The number of accidents on our roads has been decreasing in recent years, except for motorists. People who ride motorbikes account for one in three fatalities on the intercity road network and have to live with this vulnerability on the road every day. To face this fragility, La Rosa’s recipe is attention, respect and caution on the part of all users of the asphalt. She defines herself as a “very cautious” motorcyclist and says that motherhood accentuated this caution when riding a motorcycle: “All of us who get on the road need to think more about those who are waiting for us at home. Women are more cautious, we have like a sixth sense.”
Rosa’s passion for motorbikes has also gone through low hours: “Unfortunately, I have lost friends and family in accidents. For a while I thought about parking the motorcycle, I had respect to get out… Then, looking back, I wanted to think that my friend Yoyes would be happy to see me on the motorcycle as she did and we would go on a trip together.” Regarding the presence of women in the motorcycling world, she says that we are already at the moment when no one is surprised that a woman is riding a large-capacity motorcycle: “We are more and more women and it is seen and felt in the road.”
La Rosa is one of the protagonists of the SCT’s new awareness campaign aimed specifically at the motorist group, “The safest route”. On a motorcycle it is important to wear appropriate protective equipment, to maintain the vehicle properly and to practice calm and preventive driving. In this sense, Rosa emphasizes that “we cannot put ourselves in danger among ourselves. You have to be very aware that the road is not a circuit”. Precisely, the campaign insists on the importance of the involvement of the collective in their own safety: “Make your route the safest route.”
