The Importance of Teaching Bike Safety
7:20 AM
Childhood is full of fun experiences and one of the best is learning how to ride a bike. From the time they are small, most kids are itching to get behind the handle bars of a bike and for good reason. They are fun! However, that fun and quickly turn fatal if proper bike safety is not taught and followed. In fact, more than 400,000 children are treated in emergency rooms around the United States each year for bicycle related accidents.
Get Your Child a Proper Fitting Helmet
The first and most important thing you can do to teach you child bike safety and protect them from getting an acquired brain injury is to get them a proper fitting bike helmet. Here in our city, they have a kid fest once a year and have experts fitting helmets for children. The helmets are then given to the kids for free. A proper fitting helmet that your child is encouraged to wear each time they ride a bike can mean the difference between life and death in the event of an accident.
Monkey See Monkey Do
Another one of the first steps you can take in teaching your child bike safety is to practice it yourself. Before your child is even old enough to ride a bike on their own, they may see you do it. Children will often repeat what they see the adults in their life do. If you do not wear a helmet when riding your bike or follow proper bike safety rules, chances are, they won't feel the need to do it either.
Learn the Rules of the Road
If you have older children who will be riding on the roads alone or if you bike as a family in a high traffic area, it is important to teach your children the rules of the road. Bicycles are considered moving vehicles on the road and need to follow the rules that apply. That means, riding in the designated area, with the flow of traffic and using the proper signals.
Bike safety is incredibly important, as 300 children are killed in bike accidents each year and many others sustain life changing injuries. Teaching your children correctly now can save their lives later.
This post is brought to you by Irwin Mitchell.
7 comments
I agree that a great way to practice it is to do it yourself. Im a big believer in teaching by doing
ReplyDeleteI grew up with a girl who was permanently disabled in a childhood bicycle accident. It is something to take seriously.
ReplyDeleteMy son is very cautious when it comes to bike riding and takes it very seriously. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat tips. Bike safety is so important because it can cause some very serious injuries.
ReplyDeleteI wish more parents would follow these great tips. It freaks me out when I see kids riding their bikes without a helmet. Accidents happen in a split second. Thanks for the great post!
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this. I sometimes see kids riding their bikes without helmet
ReplyDeleteI second the helmet! There was a mishap once...and when I watched my young son hit the ground I have little doubt that if he were not wearing a helmet, his brains would have been left on that sidewalk.
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