OGDEN -- For Eric Stine, the death of a friend while riding a motorcycle still makes him teary-eyed. It also makes him more determined.
"We're tired of people dying," said Stine, an Ogden resident and avid biker for most of his life.
Stine, Ogden's Stephen Thompson and others are lobbying lawmakers for a change in Utah law they hope will raise awareness about a problem that plagues motorcyclists and often kills them: Left hand turns in which drivers ignore oncoming traffic.
The result: Bikers are more likely to die in the resulting crash, and drivers are ticketed.
"At the very most, they typically get a failure to yield ticket and pay a $90 fine," said Thompson, who is a chapter president in a statewide motorcycle rights organization.
Among the possibilities they hope will be explored are giving judges the option to hand out a full range of penalties for failure to yield the right of way, everything from bigger fines and stiffer penalties to revocation of a driver's license.
They note that in any one year those problematic left turns can be a top contributor to motorcycle fatalities in Utah, according to statistics his group gathered from state agencies.
An example Stine points to is 32 percent of drivers who hit motorcyclists in 2008 were turning left. Other numbers from the Utah Department of Public Safety show three motorcyclists from the Top of Utah were killed in crashes through August of this year.
One of those fatalities was Ken Cox, the Weber County man that Stine gets openly emotional about as he describes his motivations for working on a legal change.
"He was 64, going to retire in February, and leaves behind two sons, a daughter and a wife." Stine said.
Cox was a member of American Bikers Aiming Towards Education (ABATE).
Stine and Thompson, as Utah ABATE members, have spent years volunteering at Top of Utah schools to talk about motorcycle safety.
They tell schoolchildren a car crash with another vehicle is survivable, but the same scenario with a motorcycle often means a funeral for another biker.
The ABATE leaders make it clear they want awareness first, and secondly, better tools for law enforcement to apply enhanced penalties where needed.
"We don't want to be a protected class in any way, shape or form," said Thompson.
More than a dozen states have laws or have considered legislation similar to what ABATE is suggesting Utah lawmakers consider.
Rep. Ronda Rudd Menlove, R-Garland, has met with the group leadership and is considering the legislation.
"Based on the information they have provided to me, this is something we need to have a discussion about," Menlove said on Friday.
Thompson and Stine said they have also met with some prosecutors as they work to get support for their cause. It is possible the legislation could be ready for the 2011 session, but Menlove said it was too early to talk about the reality of that step.
Stine said his group has experience at lobbying for, or against, legislation; they know the process can be swift, deliberative or even downright slow.
But simmering on their agenda is the need to help avoid what they firmly believe is another needless death on the road.
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