Hot Air Balloons Provide Lesson

FARMINGTON, CT – Motorcycle training classes run by CONREP are held rain or shine, but it was another kind of intrusion from above that provided a teachable moment at the Tunxis Community College training site on Sunday morning. Hot air balloons from the nearby Plainville Hot Air Balloon Festival began landing in the parking lot, and instructor Paul J. Siciliano seized the moment.

“I took advantage of the situation to tell my students (as well as let them see for themselves) how drivers were distracted by the balloons descending and how they must always have a heightened state of awareness,” he said in a Facebook post Sunday evening.

Reached this morning, Siciliano said that he had just arrived at the range and was pulling motorcycles out of a storage unit in preparation for class. “All of a sudden, I’ve got things falling out of the sky. We had three land in the parking lot and one near miss,” he said.

Route 177 runs alongside the range and drivers immediately took notice. “People are pulling over to the side of the road. They’re pulling up on the curb to take pictures. It’s a real big distraction,” he said.

“I took this is an opportunity to say (to students) that distractions are everywhere. A person could be pulling up to a stop light where a motorcycle is already at the stop light, and they could be looking up at a balloon and run right into the rear of a motorcycle.”

Following the hot air balloons were chase vehicles to pack up the balloons. The intrusion caused a delay in the class. “It was a benefit and a delay. It was a benefit for the students, I would say,” Siciliano said.

Photos courtesy of Paul J. Siciliano