What can you do?
Of course, you ought to teach your child not to ride
across busy streets - at least until the child has had
some advanced training and is old enough to
understand traffic. But in the meantime, for
residential street riding, you can teach your child to
always look and signal before turning left. A big
part of this lesson is teaching the child how to look
to the rear without swerving.
Take your child to a playground to practice riding
along a straight line while looking behind. Stand
alongside and hold up a different number of fingers
on your hand after the child rides by. Call his/her
name. After 15 minutes of practice, a ten year old
should be able to look behind his/herself and
identify how many fingers you are holding up -
without swerving.
Night Time Riding
(See also page 10).
Most car/bicycle accidents happen at night
where an overtaking car hits a bike. (An overtaking
car is one that comes up from behind and passes the
cyclist on the left.) These overtaking accidents can
be very serious.
What can you do?
First, you should keep your youngster from riding
at night. It requires special skills and equipment.
Few children have either. Secondly, make sure your
child understands that if he/she gets caught out
after dark on a bike, the thing to do is to call you
for a ride home. One suggestions is to tape “phone
were supposed to stop. They just thought it would
be OK this time; or they may have been distracted.
the thing to impress upon your child is that while
he/she may not get hit every time, running stop
signs will eventually result in an accident.
What can you do?
Take your child to a stop sign near home. Explain
what it means by emphasizing the following points:
1). Stop at all stop signs, regardless of what is
happening.
2). Look in all directions for traffic.
3). Watch for oncoming cars making left turns.
4). Watch for cars behind you making right turns.
5). Wait for any cross traffic to clear.
6). Proceed when safe.
In order to make this lesson stick, you may have to
change your own driving habits. If you creep
through intersections controlled by stop signs, you
are showing your child that you don’t really believe
what you preach. For your child’s sake, stop at stop
signs.
Turning Without Warning:
Another major
accident type involves cyclists who make unexpected
left turns. They neither look behind for traffic, nor do
they signal. The key factor here is neglecting to look
to the rear: If the cyclist had looked, he/she would
have seen the danger coming up from behind.
P
A
G
E
6
S
A
F
E
T
Y
BICYCLE
SAFETY
Summary of Contents for Scotty Cranmer SC1
Page 1: ...B I C Y C L E O W N E R S M A N U A L ...
Page 34: ...P A G E 32 NOTES ...
Page 43: ...P A G E 41 NOTES ...
Page 44: ...P A G E 42 NOTES ...
