Harris County Emergency Corps and Safe Kids Greater Houston Celebrates National Bike Month

Schools Nationwide Promote Bike Safety

In the month of May, Safe Kids Greater Houston and Harris County Emergency Corps joined two Aldine ISD Schools, Jewell S. Houston Academy and Hambrick Middle School to celebrate National Bike Month.

In partnership with Bell Sports, hundreds of communities across the United States celebrated National Bike Month. All events promoted biking as a safe and fun way to travel, while highlighting important bike safety information, like wearing a helmet.

More children ages 5 to 14 are seen in emergency rooms for injuries related to biking than any other sport. Bike Safely Events bring an important opportunity for students to learn how to safely bike and the proper fit of a helmet.

Students learned what “visibility” and “predictability” means when riding a bike on the road. They also learned how to properly signal with their arms while riding and making turns, and how to pass pedestrians and other cyclists on the road. All of the students then participated in a “Bike Rodeo” where they dodged sponges through the obstacle course and then competed in the “Slowest Race Contest.”

“It’s important for bicyclists to wear properly fitted bicycle helmets every time they ride. A helmet is the single most effective way to prevent head injury resulting from a bicycle crash,” said Jeremy Hyde, CEO at Harris County Emergency Corps. “But many children still do not wear them. We have a simple saying, ‘Use your head. Wear a helmet.’”

Safe Kids Greater Houston and Harris County Emergency Corps remind families to follow these tips when biking:

Tell your kids to ride on the right side of the road, with traffic, not against it.  Stay to as far to the right as possible. Use appropriate hand signals and respect traffic signals. Stop at all stop signs and stoplights.

• Teach your kids to make eye contact with drivers to make sure drivers are paying attention and are going to stop before they cross the street.
• When your kids are riding at dusk, dawn or in the evening, make sure they use lights – and make sure their bikes have reflectors as well. It’s also smart to have them wear clothes and accessories that have retro-reflective materials to improve visibility to motorists.
• Actively supervise children until you’re comfortable that they are responsible to ride on their own.

The Bike Safely Events were made possible by a grant from Safe Kids Worldwide. For more information, visit www.safekids.org.

About Harris County Emergency Corps

Harris County Emergency Corps (HCEC) is a nonprofit EMS provider responding to 9-1-1 emergency medical calls for approximately 400,000 citizens of North Harris County, providing education classes for businesses and clinicians, and providing event medicine coverage for some of the largest event venues in Houston. HCEC is a premier emergency medical services organization committed to preserving lives through clinical excellence, progressive medicine, and professional service. For more information, visit www.hcec.com.

About Safe Kids Greater Houston

Safe Kids Greater Houston, led by Texas Children’s Hospital was established in 1998 to work on a local level at preventing unintentional child injuries and deaths.Safe Kids Greater Houston is one of more than 600 coalitions in the United States under the direction of Safe Kids Worldwide. Safe Kids Greater Houston works to prevent unintentional childhood injury, the number one cause of death for children in the United States. For more information, visit safekids.org or www.safekidsgreaterhouston.org.