It still amazes me how many people make their kids buckle up in the back seat and yet don't make the kids wear a helmet. My kids know I would kick their arses if they didn't have a helmet on while riding, and I call it out to my friends when I see their kids riding without. I just thought it was common sense, and now it doesn't seem all that common.
I've had the kids call me out on that one when just rolling down the street to my buddies house. I tell them when they think they are as good on a bike as I am that I am ready to test them on it, usually at Allamuchy or somewhere else they have never ridden!my dad and I were talking about this the other day when I gave him one of my old helmets. It is tough when you are riding around the neighborhood at 5MPH with the kiuds to slp on a helmet. do as I say not as i do?
That was the stupidest comment I think I read in a long time (the soccer header comparison). Perhaps he headbutted a curb way back and doesn't see the difference between a soccer ball and concrete.i love the person who compared riding a bike with no helmet to playing soccer and heading the ball!!!
When I was growing up in Flemington, a cop would always be out in the major neighborhoods on his police bike. When he saw a kid riding without a helmet, he'd stop and explain why it's important to have one, and gave them a "red ticket". The ticket was then taken to the station where it could be traded for a helmet. If you were wearing a helmet already, he'd stop you, tell you your doing a good job a give you a "green ticket". Which was a chance to win a brand new bike. Point being if they set something like this up all over, it'd help alot, I know it helped me when I was little!
Rewind 1979 - I was 7 yrs old - Cruising down a huge Hill on my BMX bike - I hit my break hard to avoid running over my buddies baseball cap. The sidewalk and raised in one section. The result - the lifted sidewalk treated my rear tire like an aluminum baseball bat to a golf ball.
I was airborne land square on my head into the sidewalk.
Result:
Fractured Skull
Bleeding out my Ear and my Eye socket was a huge baseball size blood sack.
I was in a coma for 1 week. and By the Grace of God survived with no permanent damage (although my wife will disagree)
I wasn't allowed to ride for a year. And when i could I had to wear a helmet. I was the only kid in what seemed the world wearing a helmet in NJ in 1980.
GET HELMETS ON THESE KIDS ANYWAY WE CAN! All ideas are good ideas!
Just me personal input.