Rodeo kicks off bike safety week

For a third year, the RCMP, in partnership with Fire Protective Services, the City of Yorkton, SGI and Canadian Tire celebrated Bicycle Safety Week with some fun and learning in local elementary schools.

“We try to focus on the Grade 3 students in every school,” said Const. Jeff Nelson who coordinated the kick-off Bike Rodeo event at Yorkdale Central School May 6.

“We focus on bike safety, but we try to make it fun for the kids too so we’ll take them outside and do an obstacle course.”

The safety lesson starts with the most basic thing of all, wearing a helmet, Nelson explained. This was reinforced with a video by Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Police officers then handed out helmets, courtesy of Canadian Tire to each of the kids.
Firefighters along with the SGI Safety Squad helped the children make sure the helmets were properly fitted and their bicycles were optimally tuned.

The obstacle course is designed to reinforce the importance of signalling, stopping and shoulder-checking.

Nelson said Grade 3 is probably the optimal age for the program.

“We find by Grade 3 pretty much every student knows how to ride a bike by then and they’re still young enough that we can have some impression on them, get them into some really good habits, like putting on their helmet every time they get on a bike.

“Sometimes with the older kids they’ve already developed some bad habits so if we get them young hopefully we can instill those good habits in them before they get any of the bad habits.

Nelson also underscored the importance of being visible to cars while riding on the road and that a bicycle is considered a vehicle and must obey all the rules of the road.

Saskatchewan does not have a mandatory helmet law, but the City of Yorkton does.

The law notwithstanding, statistics overwhelmingly demonstrate it is a good idea to wear one.

One systematic review indicated helmets were estimated to reduce the risk of head and brain injuries by 69 per cent, severe brain injuries by 74 per cent and facial injuries by 65%, with similar effects for cyclists in collisions with motor vehicles and across all age groups.

Bicycle Safety Week runs until Friday. Nelson said they will have run more than 250 students through the program by then.