Countywide : Session Will Foster Bike Safety Training

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the County Health Care Agency and Western Medical Center-Santa Ana will hold an all-day training program next month for people interested in bringing bicycle safety programs to their city or school.

The free March 12 conference at Western Medical Center will cover information about how bicycle injuries occur and will showcase programs being used to educate the public about bicycle safety.

“We have the technology to prevent many of the serious head injuries: bicycle helmets,” said Dr. Phyllis Agran, a pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics at the UC Irvine College of Medicine. “Unfortunately, we don’t have widespread use of that technology because we haven’t educated consumers, parents and even the medical community adequately.”

Speakers at the conference will include doctors and officials from schools, police departments and community education programs that focus on bicycle safety. State Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) will discuss recent legal efforts to require bicyclists to wear helmets.

Bergeson introduced a bill last year that would have given cities and counties the authority to enact laws requiring children 16 and younger to wear helmets while bicycling. State law prohibits local governments from legislating mandatory helmet requirements. Bergeson’s bill passed in the Senate but was defeated in the Assembly.

The situation with bicycle helmet use is similar to the use of automobile child safety seats in the 1970s, Agran said. The safety seats existed, she said, but few people used them because educational campaigns or legislation didn’t exist. When the state required parents to strap their children in safety seats, usage went up and injuries went down.

Several school districts and individual schools have held programs to encourage or require students to wear helmets while bicycling to school, Agran said.

The conference will be held from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 12 at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. Registration will be limited to the first 100 people who sign up. For information, call (714) 856-7410 or (714) 856-5371.