police say Tallahassee is one of the top 15 cities in the state for traffic crashes resulting in serious or deadly injuries to bicyclist here in Southwest Tallahassee the bike safety lesson starts young but the first step is getting them acclimated to riding a bike making sure they have their helmet on securely and safely I'm your neighborhood reporter Terry gilam at Bon Elementary my camera was rolling as two dozen new bikes were unveiled for some of our youngest neighbors here let it happen he
re are Bon Elementary's youngest and brightest they were cheering after getting surprised with new bicycles it came from HDR an all kids bike a national nonprofit organization teaching kindergarten students how to ride bikes in PE class HDR provided a $360,000 grant to all kids bike for the learn to ride curriculum and PE program all designed to teach kids safety when riding their bikes in the heart of the bond Community we have many streets and we have many um sidewalks around here for our kids
to um ride by bicycles but not only that it affords our kids the opportunity to to practice um healthy activities outside bike safety was the key Focus Friday morning kids lined up for their lesson using pedalist bicycles to learn how to turn balance and maneuver their bike even superintendent Rocky Hannah joined in he tells me how the neighborhood could benefit from students learning bike safety in the curriculum I was on a bike it brought back some uh memories a lot of good memories I think t
his neighborhood will appreciate and the parents will appreciate the grandparents will appreciate us the public schools taking it to the next level teaching kids how to safely operate bikes it it takes one of those things off for parents or we can reinforce what parents and grandparents are telling their children about how to safely operate a bike it was something new for the 2023 24 school year principal Dela Jackson tells me what the different approach was in the past we usually um start this
bike sa our bike safety curriculum in the third grade so this gives our younger ones an opportunity to learn how to ride bikes safely and to operate them I checked the numbers from the Tallahassee Police Department in 2023 across all of tallahassee's neighborhoods there were 63 crashes involving bicyclists so far this year there have been 23 their numberers superintendent Hannah would like to see dwindle in the future cuz the last thing we want is a kid to be injured Bond Elementary School is in
the middle of of a historic neighborhood here in leyon county and with all these roads and that intersect it's important that we teach kids how to ride a bike safely now Bon Elementary kindergarten students have a chance to take what they've learned in the classrooms and take it to the neighborhood we're very grateful um for the community to come out and support our school as the bike safety lessons get started here at Bond Tallahassee Police say they're getting proactive in other neighborhoods
TBD says they'll be conducting proactive patrols to keep bicyclists and pedest estrian safe and targeted areas through May of this year in Southwest Tallahassee Terry Gilliam ABC 27
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