St. John's enters bike safety partnership

The organizations participating in the program are the Nixa Lion’s Club, Christian County Optimists Club, Nixa school resource officers and the Nixa Fire and Police Departments.

Pam Holt, trauma prevention education coordinator with St. John’s, said that bicycle crashes are the fourth-leading cause of pediatric trauma admissions to St. John’s, which has a Level I trauma center.

“The majority of bicycle crashes and bicycle-related injuries occur on streets very close to the child’s home,” she said, in a news release. “The bicycle-related crashes are not usually bicycle vs. car related incidents that we hear about in the news. Instead, most crashes happen when the children wreck their bikes on the street in front of their home. Therefore, it is important to encourage children to wear a helmet at all times.”

The program was created after attempts failed to pass a Nixa city bicycle helmet ordinance, which would have required children to wear helmets while bicycling.

Through the incentive program, Nixa Police officers and school resource officers who see a child wearing a helmet while riding a bicycle will give the child a coupon for a free ice cream cone from McDonald’s or Sonic. Any child spotted not wearing a helmet while bicycling will receive a coupon for a free helmet from St. John’s Trauma Center.

Also, at the beginning of the 2005-06 school year, children who are spotted wearing helmets will have their names put into a monthly drawing for a $25 Wal-Mart gift certificate.

“This program makes a child want to wear a helmet because it is the right thing to do,” said Nixa Alderman Steve Tallaksen in the release. “Children are more likely to wear a helmet if they want to wear it, rather than making them wear it because it is a law.”

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