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On Saturday, Winona Police Community Liaison Officer Kevin Kearney brought his bike safety class to the Winona Middle School parking lot as part of Winona School District’s Community Education program to make sure novice bikers know the basics of safe bicycling.
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The roads are meant to be shared, but it only takes one inattentive driver or bicyclist to create a tragic accident, and when your mode of transportation makes you the mosquito on the windshield of a collision, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
“Do we have to watch out for cars, or are cars going to watch out for us?” Officer Kearney asked about 15 young aspiring road warriors.
Aboard an array of Huffys, Schwinns, Treks and Magnas — some with training wheels, some without, and all with helmets firmly attached — the group of young bikers got a tutorial on where to look while riding. Roads can be dangerous, Kearney told them, and they need to look out for rocks, curbs, pot holes, sand and gravel, as well as cars and other bikers.
“You know the phrase, ‘Look both ways?’” Kearney asked rhetorically. “Erase that from your head. Don’t look both ways, look all ways, always,” he said.
“That’s what I do when I cross the street,” shouted out Sam King, 5, to Kearney’s approval.
After learning about how to do hand signals and which side to pass pedestrians on, the fun part began, as participants went through an obstacle course of cones to show off their newfound safety skills. Bikers zig-zagged through cones, signaled through turns and made sure to come to a complete stop, with mostly no incidents, save for one skinned knee.
Parents watched, and members of the Sunrise Kiwanis were on hand to help with the class. Linda Jacobs, enrichment coordinator for Community Education, brought her daughters Ariana, 5, and Ambriel, 8, to the class. Jacobs could hardly contain her laughter when Ariana decided to improvise by zig-zagging around most of the cone course.
“That’s my daughter,” she said, giggling. “She was just following instructions.”
Kearney said he molds his classes around age groups. With Saturday’s young crowd, he didn’t get into the laws of the road, so as to not overload their brains. Instead, he drilled them on the basic safety rules.
“Most of them are still just trying to stay on their bikes,” Kearney said.
While this is the first time Community Education has done a bike safety course with Kearney, both Jacobs and Kearney said they would like to do it again next year, if not annually.
After the obstacle course, Kearney and volunteers checked to ensure the participants had safe equipment. Reflectors, tight chains and seats, properly pumped tires and, of course, a helmet were required to receive a safety certificate.
The sometimes rambunctious crowd, eager to ride the course and impress their peers, picked up the words of wisdom quickly. With his charges gathered around him, Kearney made sure they heard one last time his message.
“Who’s in charge of your safety?” Kearney asked. “You are.”
