Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Group promotes bike safety
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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With Western Virginia basking under springlike temperatures early this week, plenty of kids are taking advantage of the warm weather to enjoy their bikes, skates, scooters and skateboards.
As usual, many of those kids are not wearing any head protection -- even in areas where local ordinances require children to wear helmets while biking.
Sometimes that's just a matter of kids and/or parents not thinking it's a priority. Sometimes, the kids don't have helmets.
Bike Smart, Virginia! is targeting both issues.
The state program is working to reduce bike-related injuries, in part by promoting proper use of helmets. The group recently announced a grant program to help fund helmet safety projects for school-aged children.
Between Feb. 1 and May 30 the group wants to dole out 55 grants of up to $1,000 each so groups can purchase and distribute certified bicycle helmets to children of low income families.
The application deadline is Jan. 15 for the grants, which are being funded by the Virginia Department of Health and Division of Injury and Violence Prevention.
While some kids and parents might not appreciate how important helmets are, statistics don't lie.
In Virginia, 347 riders ended up in the hospital after a crash in 2004, according to Bikesmart, Virginia! The average hospital stay was four days and the median cost nearly $13,000.
Traumatic brain injuries accounted for 23 percent of those hospitalizations.
Helmets won't eliminate every traumatic brain injury, but they help.
While kids may seem safer because they tend to be riding slower than serious cyclists, young riders are at risk.
Children under 15 are five times more likely than older riders to be injured in a bike crash. Of those crashes in 2004 that put the rider in the hospital, 34 percent of the patients were kids under 15. All told, kids from 5 to 14 account for nearly a quarter of those injured in bike/car collisions.
What's not to like about free money to help reduce chances a kid is hurt or killed?
As grant applications go, this one is pretty straightforward. It may take an hour to complete. That's a pretty minor investment for something this important.
Applicants for the grants will be required to provide basic information about their organization, as well as to answer questions regarding their plans, such as the target audience, planned activities and time line, a detailed budget that includes the vendor and price of helmets, and a list of community partners.
For an application or more information, including a list of approved helmet vendors, contact Heather Board at (804) 864-7738 or visit vahealth.org/civp/bike/.
Is duck season waning?
Sitting in their waterfowl blind in Bedford County over the weekend, John Rehak and his father, Larry, saw an encouraging number of ducks.
But that didn't translate to great hunting.
First, lots of ducks landed in their decoy spread before legal shooting light. But they quickly took off.
The flocks kept appearing when legal shooting hours started, but the birds weren't very responsive.
"We saw lots of new birds but many were call and decoy shy," John Rehak, who lives in Hardy, e-mailed Monday.
The birds that did take a liking to the spread committed fast.
"Our bag was only four buffleheads and a common merganser, but we missed plenty more birds that buzzed through our spread at mach one," Rehak said. "We just couldn't get out front."
Die-hard waterfowlers have had some decent hunting this year, but things have generally been slow. The warm weather that hit over the weekend won't help, either.
At least during the recent cold snap many small ponds iced up and bird were forced to focus on larger bodies of water, such as bigger public reservoirs and the James and New rivers.
With ponds ice-free now and likely for the foreseeable future, ducks will be really scattered. Duck hunters with access to a good pond or two could be in good shape. Others may be in for some slow sits in their blinds.
The general duck season wraps up Jan. 26, while goose season runs through Feb. 15.
