Eckville students were taught essential skills of injury prevention and how to safely ride motorcycles during an interactive presentation at Eckville Junior Senior High School last Thursday.
Alberta Safe Riders instructor Lori Zacaruk told students how unsafe riding can lead to injuries. She also discussed which motorcycles are safe to ride, hand signals, the importance of wearing protective clothing, the different parts of a motorcycle and how to wear a helmet.
“We saw a huge per cent of the youth that have already been on machines,” she said. “The three key messages we want youth to remember are helmet use for everyone, no passengers with you on your machines and always ride with an adult.”
Students who volunteered to sit on a quad and snowmobile parked in the gym were shown where lights, gas and brakes are. They were also told that it’s not safe for two people to ride a bike designed for only one rider.
“Accidents are a reality and it’s not something that happens to other people in the newspapers,” said Zacaruk. “Real accidents happen to real people in our own communities and many times it’s because of a choice we made that led to the higher chance of an accident happening.”
Students were shown photos of a young man who ended up in hospital with a cracked skull resulting from an accident in which he wasn’t wearing a helmet. Not only did he have a long hospital recovery, he permanently lost his peripheral vision.
“Now we have young people wearing helmets on a consistent basis, it’s the adults we need to work on,” said Zacaruk.