Hundreds of thousands of children are seriously injured in bicycle falls each year, with more than 600 fatalities occurring annually. The Children\u2019s Regional Hospital at Cooper offers parents these bicycle-buying and bicycle-safety tips to help protect your children this bike-riding season:<\/p>\n
The Right Bike<\/strong> The Right Gear<\/strong> The Right Ride<\/strong>
\nDon\u2019t buy a bike your child can \u201cgrow into.\u201d Oversized bikes are especially dangerous. Children don\u2019t have the skills and coordination needed to handle a bigger bike; they can lose control. You can tell that a bike is the right size for your child when he or she is able to place the balls of both feet on the ground while seated on the bicycle seat with both hands on the handlebars. Also, your child\u2019s first bike should be equipped with footbrakes, not handbrakes. Children\u2019s hand muscles and coordination skills are not mature enough to control handbrakes.<\/p>\n
\nYour child needs to wear a bicycle helmet during every bike ride, no matter how short the ride or how near to home. Many accidents happen in driveways, on sidewalks and on bike paths, not just on streets. In fact, the majority of bike crashes happen close to home. And remember, a bicycle helmet is the only head gear made specifically to protect the head from any fall that might occur while biking. Other helmets, such as hard hats or football helmets, are made to protect the head from other types of injury. Never allow your child to wear anything other than a well-fitting bicycle helmet while riding a bike. Also, make sure your child’s bike has reflectors.<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s never safe for your child to ride a bike at night. Night riding requires special skills, which few youngsters are able to handle. Never allow your child to ride at dusk or after dark. Also, hand signals are an important part of the rules of the road and should be taught to all children before they begin to ride in the street. Street cyclists also should ride on the right side of the road\u2014with traffic, not facing traffic. However, any child who doesn\u2019t have the skills to use hand signals without falling or swerving should not be allowed to ride in the street.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"Riding](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/kidsconnection_200804_front.jpg\" "\\"Riding")
Hundreds of thousands of children are seriously injured in bicycle falls each year, with more than 600 fatalities occurring annually. The Children\u2019s Regional Hospital at Cooper offers parents these bicycle-buying and bicycle-safety tips to help protect your children this bike-riding season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[63],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-admin","4":"has-excerpt","5":"has-more-link","6":"post-349","8":"format-standard","9":"category-kids-connection","10":"post_tag-bike-safety"},"yoast_head":"\n