Dummy up, don’t dummy out
A commonsense caution warning to all summer visitors- and a reminder to Kelowna residents. Our pavement is just as tough as anyone else’s.
HodgePodge by Charlie Hodge
I have no idea who he was, how old he was, or where he came from. What I do know is you nearly wound up as part of my hood and windshield.
He scared the friggin daylights out of me and I am still shaking with terror at how close I came to killing him. One second I was driving down the street heading home from work and the next I know he burst out of a side entrance in the air, landed his bike mere feet in front of me, immediately jumped his bike (skilled I will admit) off the main drag and down an alley.
By pure luck I hit the brakes, cranked the wheel, and spun away from him. Thankfully the guy behind me was on his game and avoided t-boning me, while the woman in the lane heading towards me was far enough away not to take me out. I think part of my heart is still in my throat.
A block later I pulled over to simply catch my breathe and calm down. I had gone from terror and stress to angry and frustrated. I wanted to find him and ask what kind of an idiot he was to ride so chaotic and without regard for his life?
I guesstimate that he was an older teen or a young adult, but could not sure.
Then it dawned on me why I was so chocked. He wasn’t wearing a helmet.
I have an issue with people riding bikes and not wearing helmets.
In my youth I had a friend who fell from his bike, banged his head on a rock and suffered major head trauma. He wound up physically and mentally damaged for the rest of his life.
Years later as a reporter I covered an accident where an adult male, not wearing a helmet, was riding down the sidewalk, lost control and while falling off simply banged his head on a streetlamp. He died enroute to the hospital. Such a waste.
Just a few years ago an 11-year old Abbotsford lad fell from his long board (skateboard) and struck his head on the pavement and died shortly after. He was not wearing a helmet. The true tragedy is not only the tender age of the accident victim but more so the fact that his demise was totally preventable had he simply put on his helmet. The news clip did state that, “Normally the youngster did wear head protection when boarding – yet for some unspecified reason was not doing so when the fall took place.”
None of it makes sense.
Tragedies come in all mediums and spectrums and none of us are immune from dealing with one. However, like many other experiences or events in our lifetime, tragedies can be delayed or avoided by our own actions or inactions. It’s another version of a story we hear far too often; a few minutes of carelessness or lack of caution results in a life altering or life ending scenario.
It’s the kind of tragedy that leaves the victims survivors struggling to comprehend the loss, to understand the senselessness of it all, to grasp the harsh reality that the loss of the person never had to happen.
Kelowna, despite its lovely Lotus Land appeal and summer playground tag, is no more immune to such sorrow than Abbotsford nor any other community across Canada. Our sidewalks and roadways are no more forgiving from a harsh impact perspective than any other pavement in the country. If you fall off your bike, skateboard, rollerblades … and smack your head on the ground it will not feel any better here than elsewhere.
With the delightful arrival of summer weather, the roads and walkways of our city become a beehive of activity and since many of the ‘beautiful’ people in Kelowna also happen to be physically active that means a sudden massive increase in the use of wheeled travel such as bicycles and boards. Unfortunately, with the increase of such modes of transportation comes an increase in the vanity of many of those operating their travel devices. There is a bent, ego-inflated mindset in the Okanagan that one must make sure they look extra cool, hot, attractive, or funky while rolling down the road – and that equates to not wearing proper protective gear including helmets.
It is a disaster waiting to happen.
And disasters happen.
My blessed life allows me to spend much of my time as a writer staring out a window at the world around me. Like many, I am also a professional people watcher at heart and so I practice my staring out windows a great deal. I am constantly surprised at how many people ride by my house, favourite restaurant or pub, or park bench looking marvelous – but unprotected from the unexpected.
No one hops on a bike with the intention of crashing to the ground, colliding with another cyclist, car, or pedestrian, or bouncing off a light pole. If they did plan such an event it would be called a planned injury not an accident. Yet for some reason residents or visitors to Kelowna seems extra confident that when cruising through K-Town they are immune to injury.
Of even greater logic-defiant concern is my observation that the large majority of folks I see riding their bikes without a helmet are adults, not youngsters. It seems that many adults insist their child protect their noggin but for some reason believe their advanced age forms some dome of stupidity protection.
The ‘system complainer’ side of me wants to reach out and somehow blame the RCMP for not monitoring bike operators better. That part of me wants to see officers spend their day writing up tickets for those without a helmet (or light, or bell, or brain). It is so easy to deflect the responsibility and blame for such stupidity on anyone but the person who caused the concern to begin with.
It is time to dummy up, not dummy out.
If you or someone you care about rides a bike, skateboard, rollerblade etcetera than for goodness sake quit minding your business and say something. Tell them you love them and want them around, healthy, for a long time. Tell them to drop the ridiculous ego that prevents them from putting on a helmet or protective padding. Tell them you care and insist they look after themselves for your sake if not their own.
No one looks good with their head split open after losing a discussion with pavement.
Death cares not how old, young, skinny, fat, tall, short, heavy, light… you are. When you senselessly play with fate – death will suck you up like a slurpy.
In Abbotsford it will be another long and tragically sad summer for the family of that young man as memories creep in with the sunshine and skateboarders everywhere. It will be a summer (and longer) spent wondering why and how? It will be a summer spent mourning and wishing that time could be turned back, things done different, common sense to be used. It is a tragedy that never had to be.
If you ride (anything) wear a helmet.
If you, your partner, your friend, children are riding bikes, roller blades scooters… get them to wear a helmet.
Don’t let such a waste of life be yours.
