Common thread unites two serious motorcycle accidents across the country

In my news reader today, there were stories from two different parts of the country covering two separate motorcycle accidents, both fatal.  See if you can figure out what the common thread to these motorcycle accidents is:

• In St. Croix County, Wisconsin, a 43 year old man riding a motorcycle was killed when the 17 year old driver of a car failed to stop at a stop sign, hitting the motorcycle and propelling him into a ditch.  The motorcycle rider was killed as a result of the injuries sustained in the motorcycle accident even though he was wearing a helmet.
• in Kentucky, a 52 year old man was killed when his motorcycle hit a pick-up truck coming from the other direction which was making a left hand turn into a private driveway.  The motorcycle driver attempted to avoid the collision, but could not and suffered fatal injuries in the motorcycle crash.

One day, two motorcycle accidents, two fatalities.  Common thread: the driver of the car failed to see the motorcycle rider and did not yield the right of way to the motorcycle.  I wish that these stories were not so frequent that I could not put up a blog post about one every day, but the fact of the matter is that many of these kinds of accidents are due to the simple failure of the car driver to see the motorcyclist, a phenomenon that is not new and has been well-documented since the Hurt Report, long ago.

The only real question is: why are we not doing more to raise awareness and save the lives of motorcyclists who are following the rules of the road?