Texas Motorcycle Safety Coalition Meeting

Agenda

10:00 – 10:10 AM: Opening Remarks & Introductions

10:10 – 10:15 AM: Safety Minute

10:15 – 10:20 AM: Task Force Update

10:20 – 11:00: Guest Speaker: Dave Misiulis, Under the Helmet Riders Foundation

11:00 – 11:10: Break

11:10 – 11:35: Announcements

• 2026 Motorcycle Safety Forum
  • Saturday, April 11, 2026; Embassy Suites, San Marcos
  • Registration Status
• TMSC Email List
• Look Twice yard signs are available
• San Antonio Big Bloom Home & Garden Show, March 27-29

11:35 – Noon: Open Forum

• Local events, past and future

Noon: Adjourn

Texas Motorcycle Safety Coalition Meeting Minutes

March 26, 2026, 10:00 am – noon

Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) Headquarters RM 1140 & Teams

Welcome & Agenda (mm 00:01:10 [Times noted for posted meeting video])

The meeting was opened by Cathy Brooks, who welcomed everyone and expressed appreciation to participants joining both in person and virtually from across Texas. Attendees were encouraged to introduce themselves and to speak up as needed. The meeting agenda was outlined.

Safety Minute: Work Zone Safety (mm 00:04:33)

Laura Higgins talked about safe riding in work zones, and provided a link to the free Riding in Work Zones brochure, downloadable from LookLearnLive.org or available in English and Spanish. LaViza Matthews shared that TxDOT’s Work Zone Awareness week kicks off on April 16.

Task Force Update (mm 00:07:00)

Cathy talked about this year’s Task Force effort: gathering information on Texas motorcycle safety efforts and programs in preparation for a statewide motorcycle safety progrqam assessment by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Guest Speaker: Dave Misiulis, “A Survivor’s Perspective” (mm 00:13:22)

Dave Misiulis works with the Under The Helmet Riders Foundation (UTH), a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting public safety through the perspective of everyday individuals. Beyond his advocacy work, Dave is also a cybersecurity student, a devoted husband, and a father of three.

On Easter morning in 2024, David was involved in a high-speed collision with a city bus at 60 mph, resulting in cardiac arrest, a traumatic brain injury, and a period spent in a medically induced coma. He credits a bystander named Benjamin for intervening to pull him off the road and administer CPR until emergency services arrived.

Dave had been riding for seven months when his crash occurred, he acknowledges that he was speeding, and now believes he was overconfident compared to his riding skill level. That mismatch likely contributed to his being unable to respond to an unexpected situation on the road. The crash left him with a traumatic brain injury, as well as many broken bones and other injuries. He spent months in physical therapy to rebuild his leg and his spine, and to learn to walk again. It was a harrowing time and involved depression, mood swings, and survivor’s guilt. Two years after the crash, he still has PTSD from the incident, and still experiences short-team memory loss.

“I’m here to show you what happens when physics meets the pavement.” Despite wearing a Snell-rated helmet, he was badly injured; but without that helmet he likely would not have survived. If he had been wearing full gear, it may have mitigated some of his other injuries. “The gear buys you margin, but your riding behavior is a huge factor in whether you need that margin.”

That experience was why he joined UTH. This advocacy organization is built around the idea that the best people to talk about motorcycle safety are the ones who have survived crashes. The real stories about crashes and their aftermath can provide context about safety messages that bare-bones statistics may not.

In Texas, there’s a real need for stories like this. In 2024, an average of more than one rider per day didn’t come home due to a fatal crash. Dave hopes to change at least one person’s decisions about riding behaviors, to keep someone else from experiencing a devastating crash and the aftermath. “The worst case scenarios happen when you least expect them.”

Comments and questions from meeting attendees included the following:

• Anteaus Simmons (UTH): Real-life perspectives are what people need to hear, which is why we share real-life stories with riders. Our organization is connected to riders in Texas, like David.
• Very powerful story, David. What programs or organizations helped you to heal? I am glad you are doing better today. Dave: UTH has helped me share my story and to heal. Lots of therapy, lots of psychiatry. More recently, I tried EMDR therapy, which dramatically decreased my mood swings.
• What do you want to change riders’ minds about? Dave: I want to change riders’ minds about reckless behaviors, like riding too fast on the road.  I want them to be more mindful on the road, and realize that many drivers will not see them.
• Antaeus Simmons: UTH is in Texas. We’ve seen more than one major incident recently with groups of motorcycles in pile-ups on Texas highways. We have individuals using Texas highways as drag strips for racing. We understand with more new riders on the roads, we’re likely to have more incidents like this. It’s increasingly important to share survivor’s stories to head off this type of reckless behavior among riders.
• Tony Lee Palafox: Clark’s Safety Foundation has a similar mission, focusing on youth, and encouraging them to try out their high-speed riding on racetracks that are specifically designed for that.

Attendees discussed on-road stunting and lane-splitting as part of the discussion of motorcyclist behaviors and safety. Lane-splitting is not currently legal in Texas, though it is legal under some circumstances in a few other states. Attendees were united in the opinion that on-road stunting and high-speed lane splitting should not be permitted; some attendees mentioned the potential benefits of lane-filtering/splitting to allow motorcycles to safely move in stopped/slow traffic.

Announcements (mm 01:16:09)

• 2026 Motorcycle Safety Forum
  • Saturday, April 11, 2026; Embassy Suites, San Marcos
  • Online registration is open through April 5
• TMSC email list – we have recently discovered that if someone was subscribed to multiple email lists on Constant Contact and has removed their name from one of those lists, it automatically removes them from all subscribed lists. So if you haven’t received a TMSC email for a while (and would like to), you might need to re-subscribe.
• Look Twice yard signs are available – contact Cathy ([email protected]) or Laura ([email protected]).
• TTI will have the Look Learn Live booth at the San Antonio Big Bloom Home & Garden Show, Mar. 27-29.

Open Forum (mm 01:20:55)

• Meeting attendee Tony Lee Palafox spoke about Clark’s Safety Foundation, which was founded May 15, 2025 in honor of Clark Prather. A week before he graduated from high school, he was hit and killed on the road. A petition was started last July to ask that a motorcycle safety awareness option be added to all mobile and in-car GPS navigation apps. This feature would gently remind drivers to watch for motorcyclists and other vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and bicyclists. The petition is awaiting signatures on change.org. A second petition, started in February of this year, is asking for the same feature on GPS platforms, and also a public service announcement (PSA) push to mobile navigation apps on May 1 and May 15 during Motorcycle Safety Month. A contact email for the organization is [email protected]. Tony’s email is [email protected].
• Christian Hunt was at the Medal of Honor luncheon yesterday, and gave away 100 Look Twice signs.

Adjourn (mm 01:43:40)

If you have any topic ideas for future meetings (or the Forum), please send them to Cathy ([email protected])  or Laura ([email protected]).

Ride safe and have a great rest of your week!