Kids attend bike safety event at fairgrounds

World Bicycle Day was celebrated June 3 with a safety event for children and their families.

The Coshocton Public Health District and the Coshocton County Sheriff’s Office worked together to present a bicycle safety event at the Coshocton County Fairgrounds. A free hot dug lunch was provided by the Coshocton County Sheriff’s Office, which also brought Scoops Ice Cream to the event. The health district passed out free youth-size bicycle helmets, the prosecutor’s office was there to offer child ID kits, Coshocton County EMS had an ambulance on-site for children to explore and grills for the lunch were provided by the Coshocton Fire Department.

Kids also could visit Justin Landerman, Coshocton County sheriff’s deputy, who shared bicycle safety tips with them. Some of those tips were to wear your helmet the right way; check the air, brakes and chains on your bike before riding; and stay alert. Landerman also discussed hand signals for actions such as turning left and right with them and what to do in case of an emergency.

Brothers Andres and August McPeek attended the event with their grandmother Shelley McPeek. Andres, 5, said he learned a lot about bike safety, especially that red and blue colors make you more visible. August, 7, said the hand signals were a good lesson for him.

Coshocton County Sheriff Chris Walters was glad he and his staff could help with the event.

“I was part of community events when I was chief in West Lafayette, and I knew that was something I wanted to do here in Coshocton too,” he said. “With it being the first week of June and all the schools being out now, we knew kids would start being out more on their bikes. We want them to know they need to follow all the traffic laws. When you are on a bicycle, you need to follow the motor vehicle laws and make sure to stop at the stop signs and red lights just like cars do.”

Olivia Elson, health educator/public information officer for the health district, said they had 50 bicycle helmets to give away. 

Staff from the health district helped measure children’s heads and make sure helmets fit properly.

“The idea for this event came out of a meeting at the health district,” Elson said. “We have a committee that plans internal events for staff and external events for the community. I reached out to the sheriff to be part of it, and he was immediately onboard. From there we just started adding others to help.”

When children picked up their helmets, they were given raffle tickets for the chance to win brand-new bicycles donated by the sheriff’s office and the Elks. There also was a drawing for a free ATV helmet.