Grade three and four students at three area schools are learning about the importance of wearing a bike helmet and then got a brand new helmet.
The Bike Helmet On Kids Campaign was started by the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association. Jay Ralston is a lawyer and says it is important to have young kids learn this valuable lesson.
He compares it to people learning to wear seatbelts in their cars. Â He says the generation before him never learned to wear one, but his generation did, because it was mandated.
Ralston says when you learn to do it at an early age it becomes a habit and you aren’t even away you’re doing it. He says it is not a loss of freedom or a loss of enjoyment; it’s just what you do.
He says the younger the kids learn that lesson with helmets, the more likely they are to wear one their whole lives.
Ralston says the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association started this event because they saw too many kids with head injuries. He says there are so many people whose lives are torn apart because of injuries that are preventable. Ralston says when a child falls off their bike and hits their head, they should be able to just get up and move on, but they can’t because of a brain injury.
To stress this point, part of the presentation is to show the students what could happen to their head if they aren’t wearing a helmet. For that they use an egg. Ralston placed an egg inside a small helmet and let three students drop them to the floor; the egg did not break.
He then placed the egg in a sandwich bag and let the students repeat the process, which resulted in a quick recipe for a scrambled egg.
The presentation took place today at Dr. MacDougall, J.W. Trussler and E.W. Norman.
