OCEAN CITY — Intermediate school students rode to school with some of Ocean City’s finest last week after securing their helmets and performing a bicycle maintenance check.
The Ocean City School District teamed up with the Police Department for “Bike with a Cop” on Sept. 18.
Children gathered with Ptl. Kayla Ricci beginning at 7 a.m. at the Transportation Center on Ninth Street and with Officer Ben Bethea in the parking lot of the Wawa market at 34th Street before setting out on the Haven Avenue bike path to school at 18th Street and Bay Avenue.
The event was to intended to raise awareness of safety and encourage safe practices as students ride to and from school.
“We wanted to go over some safety stuff at the beginning of school and we’re going to try to do this every year,” Ricci said.
Prior to pedaling off, the officers ensured everyone had a helmet and was wearing it properly and performed a safety check of the bicycles.
The ABCs of bicycle maintenance safety are Air, Brakes and Cranks, Chain and Cassette. Each should be checked to ensure they are in working order.
Along the way to school, officers shared safety information, making sure that students stopped at all stop signs and looked both ways before crossing.
“Just make sure that you’re looking out for other cars, paying attention to the signs, paying attention to the lights. If you have a red light, you have to stop at the red light; you have to follow the rules of the road just like a regular vehicle,” Ricci said. “We just want to hone in on that and make sure the kids know the rules.”
“Bike with a Cop” was the first of multiple events planned at the school this year to reinforce the importance of bicycle safety to students and families.
OCIS Principal Matt Engle said grade-level assemblies are planned for Oct. 3 with a representative of Cape May County Cross Connections, a non-profit transportation management association that provides services in Atlantic and Cape May counties, among others.
The following week, the school is celebrating National Walk to School Day on Oct. 8.
“That’s the start but we are planning out things throughout the year to continue into the spring,” Engle said. “This is a big biking, walking community so we are really just trying to create the conversation — start at the beginning of the year, carry it through to the end.”
Bicycle safety is an important concern in the community all year, but the summer brings a mass influx of tourists to the island, creating hazardous conditions.
Ricci said the officers would touch on the increased hazards of summertime traffic but would primarily focus on bike safety in general for everyday use.
Engle said it is important to practice safety every day.
“Traffic or not, it’s important to know the laws and how to bike safely — stopping at stop signs, wearing your helmet — all of those things are good to reinforce,” he said.
Ricci said she hopes the safety practices become ingrained in the youths and carried forward into their adulthood and passed onto their children.
She said that’s what happened with her generation following the “Click It or Ticket” campaign that encouraged motorists to wear seat belts.
– STORY and PHOTOS by CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
