164th year. No. 235Advice, B3 Classified, B6 Comics, B4 Sports, B1 Weather, A2 News: mlive.com/news Sports: mlive.com/sports

© The Muskegon Chronicle Feedback: comments@mlive.com

$3.00 POWERING MLIVE .COM SATURDAY, AUGUST 28 , 2021

Afghan citizens board a French military plane Monday at the Kabul airport. International evacuations continue amid growing tensions and terrorist attacks as the U.S.’s Aug. 31 deadline looms. Etat Major des Armees via AP

A child laborer displays his hands after being rescued in a raid Thursday by Bachpan Bachao Andolan, or Save the Childhood Movement, at a garage in New Delhi, India. Altaf Qadri, AP

Lindsay Moore lmoore@mlive.com

Michigan authorities are drawing attention to the state’s motorcyclist track record on highway safety.

Michigan is part of the national campaign Toward Zero Deaths, which tracks crash statistics, promotes safety culture and strategy and champions the idea that one death on our nation’s roadways is too many.

Last year, 150 fatal crashes involved motorcycles out of the total 1,010 fatal crashes that happened across the state, according to the Michigan State Police Criminal Justice Information Center.

Half of all motorcycle fatalities in Michigan involve riders who are not properly licensed, according to statis-tics from Michigan State Police and the Office of High-way Safety Planning.

Michigan law requires a motorcycle endorsement on a driver’s license to legally ride a motorcycle on the state’s roadways. It is a misdemeanor to ride a motorcycle with-out the endorsement and can result in points on a driving record and fines up to $300, according to the state police.

Motorcyclists younger than 18 with a Michigan driv-er’s license are required to take a motorcycle safety course to obtain a motorcycle endorsement. Although applicants older than 18 are not required to take an instruction course, it is highly recommended, state police said.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson put the spotlight on motorcycle safety in a 2019 campaign, “Motorcyclists Are Hard to See. Look Twice. Save a Life.” The campaign funding came from $2.50 from each original motorcy-cle endorsement and $2 from each renewal motorcycle endorsement.

HIGHWAY SAFETY

Crash statistics reveal improper licensing

“If somebody says something to you, just say: ‘I’m trying to stay safe,’ and leave it at that,” pediatrician Dr. Julia Madison-Williams advises

Danielle Salisbury DSalisbury@mlive.com

Even in school districts where masks are optional and many students are certain to be unmasked, parents still should send children to school wearing facial coverings, doctors said.

“There is still some protection that your child will get,” said Dr. Sandy Patel, pediatric hospitalist at Beau-mont Hospital in Royal Oak.

Children in masks inhale less measurable virus, so if they do get sick, hopefully, they will not get as sick, Patel said.

Masks protect the wearer — reducing contact with viral particles — and those around them, reducing spread of respiratory droplets.

“The parent, the pro-mask parent saying: ‘It’s not good enough if one is wearing one, the other one is not,’ I think that is false. I think it gives you some protection,” said Dr. Mark Hamed, emergency room physician and medical director for health departments covering eight counties in the thumb and northeast Michigan.

Experts say masks work best when everyone wears them, and doctors, including the state’s Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, have said all students and school staff should be required to wear masks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Amer-ican Academy of Pediatrics provide the same recommen-dation — universal masking for children older than 2 and school employees. But Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has said the state will not mandate masking this year.

The decision has left health officials and school admin-istrators in communities across the state to debate the issue, sometimes in contentious public forums. People have held signs, marched along streets and made impas-sioned comments at lengthy board meetings.

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Mandate or no, wear a mask at school, doctors urge

THE WEEK IN PHOTOS

Storms again cause flooding and power outages

Presley Perez rides on the shoulders of George Estrada as he walks Tuesday along the shore in South Lake Tahoe, California. They wore face masks to protect against the smoke from the Caldor Fire . Rich Pedroncelli, AP

An Indian Border Security Force soldier performs a stunt on a bike Wednesday during a function to celebrate the 75th year of India’s Independence in Ahmedabad, India. Ajit Solanki, AP

Storm clouds approach downtown from the west in Kalamazoo on Tuesday. According to the Kalam-

azoo Office of Emergency Management, 2 to 3 inches of rain fell across Kalamazoo County on Tues-

day evening. According to Consumers Energy, the wave of storms left as many as 70,000 without

electricity across the state, with large clusters of outages near Mount Pleasant, Midland and Sagi-

naw. Photo by Joel Bissell, MLive.com

THE LATE AUGUST HEAT REMINDS US MICHIGAN IS STILL VERY MUCH IN THE THICK OF SUMMER, BUT FOR LOVERS OF ALL THINGS AUTUMNAL, KNOW THAT THE STATE’S APPLE HARVEST HAS BEGUN. A2

THE DETROIT LIONS WRAPPED UP THE EXHIBITION SEASON FRIDAY NIGHT AGAINST THE INDIANAPOLIS COLTS. FINAL CUTS ARE THIS WEEKEND AS NFL TEAMS PREPARE FOR THE SEASON.. B1

TIME FOR APPLES?

LOOKINGAHEAD

SEE PANDEMIC: MASKS, A3

SEE HIGHWAY SAFETY, A3