Safe Kids of Logan County

Health department to host bicycle rodeo and free helmets      

National Safe Kids Week is April 30-May 7

[APRIL 26, 2005]  In celebration of National Safe Kids Week, Safe Kids of Logan County will offer an interactive event to educate families about the need for parents to set good examples for children through safe behavior. Parents and children in the Lincoln and Logan County area will have the opportunity to participate at the Logan County Health Department on May 3 from 3 to 5:30 p.m. The event will include a bicycle rodeo, bicycle identification, free bike helmets and will feature bicycle safety checks by Dan Gosda of Back Alley Bikes.

New research released by the National Safe Kids Campaign and Johnson & Johnson finds that parents are not consistently role-modeling safe behavior for their children. Findings include that while 98 percent of parents agree it is important to act as safety role models for their children, the percentage of parents who report actually practicing safe behaviors is often lower. In addition, children with parents whose actions reinforce their words appear more likely to practice safe behaviors.

"It is as important to 'walk the walk' as it is to 'talk the talk' when it comes to keeping children safe," according to Kim Escobedo, Safe Kids coordinator locally. "Wearing a life jacket, a bike helmet or a seat belt, and crossing streets at crosswalks are easy ways to keep kids safe. Parents can talk about how important it is, but if they aren't doing it themselves, their kids aren't likely to either."

Parents do a good job of both stressing the importance of safety belt use with their children and being good examples by wearing safety belts themselves (86 percent say they always do). This may explain near-universal safety belt use among children -- 91 percent of children say they always wear a safety belt.

But the research shows that parents are much less successful at being good role models for their children in other key safety areas, such as wearing a bike helmet, wearing a life jacket and safely crossing busy streets. It is important for parents to understand the risks related to these activities as well. For example:

• Drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children ages 1-14.
• Bicycles are associated with more childhood injuries than any other consumer product except the automobile.
• Pedestrian injury remains the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death among children ages 5-14.

For more information or for a copy of "Follow the Leader: A National Study of Safety Role Modeling Among Parents and Children," contact Safe Kids of Logan County at [phone], [e-mail] or visit www.safekids.org.

Safe Kids of Logan County is part of the National Safe Kids Campaign, the first and only national nonprofit organization dedicated solely to the prevention of unintentional childhood injury -- the No. 1 killer of children ages 14 and under. More than 300 state and local Safe Kids coalitions in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico make up the campaign.

Founding sponsor Johnson & Johnson continues its 17-year partnership with the campaign. Johnson & Johnson will support National Safe Kids Week with a national advertising campaign. It will also distribute safety checklists through retail stores nationwide and send a free-standing insert of coupons to more than 41 million households.

[News release]