Charlotte— Carolinas HealthCare System and Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation will announce a new, joint campaign Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 10:30am to encourage youngsters and teenagers to obey the law this summer and wear bike helmets for safety. The campaign will feature Park Watch personnel distributing special certificates for a free bike helmet to children younger than 16 who ride bikes without wearing a helmets. Youngsters who have helmets will be “rewarded” and given a ticket for any remaining home game of the Charlotte Knights baseball team this year.
The certificates and tickets will be distributed at parks and greenways operated by Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation. The program will be announced in Freedom Park by Janice Williams, Director of the Carolinas Center for Injury Prevention and Jim Garges, Director of Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation.
Bicycles are associated with more childhood injuries than any other consumer product except automobiles. Head injury is the leading cause of death in bicycle crashes, the most important determinant of death and permanent disability. The most effective device to reduce head injuries and death from bicycle crashes is a helmet. Locally, about 47% of bike injury patients seen at the emergency room at Carolinas HealthCare System suffer from head trauma.
In North Carolina, state law requires youth under age 16 to wear a bike helmet when riding a bike. Mecklenburg County Commissioners passed a local ordinance in 1997, before the state law, requiring youngsters under 16 to wear a helmet at County parks and greenways when on a bike, scooter, or skateboard.
Other partners in this campaign include Levine Hospital at Carolinas Medical Center, the Carolinas Center for Injury Prevention, Charlotte Mecklenburg Safe Kids, the Charlotte Knights, and local bike shops (SouthPark Cycles, Bike East, Bike Line of Charlotte, Trips for kids, and Bike Source), Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, Pineville Police, Matthews Police, Union County Safe Kids and the Union County Sheriff.
