Two fatal crashes three days apart involving motorcycles serve as reminders for both riders and drivers to look out for one another.

Sunday evening 45-year-old Robert Decker or Omaha was killed when a blue SUV pulled in front of him at 33rd and L Streets.

Last Thursday evening police say 29-year-old Shray Hodges of Bennington was going too fast when he crested a hill near 96th and Jefferson and struck a van. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Brian Labedz works in the service department at Holstein’s Harley-Davidson. Exactly a year ago Tuesday he was driving his motorcycle home on Highway 50 at the I-80 interchange when a semi driver pulled out in front of him. He hit the rear axle of the trailer-less semi tractor and went airborne. He was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

“I had internal injuries, bleeding internally,” says Labedz. “I was just going home for lunch with the wife. I told her I would be home in about five minutes. And then she gets a phone call and hour-and-half later from the hospital stating that I'm in the hospital and that I was involved in an accident."

He says the semi driver never saw him. He encourages drivers to be more aware of motorcycles. But he also knows that a motorcyclist being more visible can sometimes be the difference between life and death. "Sometimes with the high visibility,” Labedz says, “you know hunter's orange, stuff like that, even a reflective coat, reflective tape and stuff like that definitely helps."

A year later Labedz is fully recovered, but not ready to hit the road on a motorcycle. "Not ready to go out with the main public again just for the sheer fact that, what if another person doesn't see me. And this time it's not a good outcome."