Daytona Beach Personal Injury Lawyers
Bicycle Safety:
Bicycle safety training should include: proper handling of common roadway conditions as well as emergency skills and how to deal with motorist error. Effective training should also cover: proper turning, cornering, descending and climbing principles along with roadway and speed positioning. Bad weather and night riding should also be highlighted along with vehicle laws and proper roadway etiquette.
Bicycle-friendly Communities:
Bicycle-friendly communities are places where people feel safe and comfortable riding their bikes for fun, fitness, and transportation, according to the Network of Employers for Traffic Safety. With more people bicycling, communities experience reduced traffic demands, improved air quality and greater physical fitness.
Children and Bicycles:
Thinking about transporting your child on your bicycle? Unless you have a bicycle-towed trailer, you may want to think again. Follow these tips, which only reduces but does not eliminate the risk for injury.
- Only adult cyclists should carry young passengers.
- Preferably, children should ride in a bicycle-towed child trailer.
- Ride with passengers in parks, on bike paths, or quiet streets rather than busy thoroughfares.
- Infants younger than 12 months are too young to sit in a rear bike seat and should not be carried on a bicycle. Do not carry infants in backpacks or front packs on a bike.
- Children ages 12 months to 4 years who sit well unsupported and whose necks are strong enough to support a lightweight helmet may be carried in a child-trailer or rear-mounted seat.
- A young passenger should always wear a lightweight infant bike helmet.
- The child must be strapped into the bike seat with a sturdy harness.
Seat Belts During Pregnancy:
Wearing a seat belt is particularly important during pregnancy, when you’re protecting for two. The American Academy of Family Physicians offers these suggestions for moms-to-be while traveling in the car:
- Wear your seat belt properly, with the lap belt beneath your belly and the shoulder strap positioned between the breasts and to the side of the belly.
- Move your seat back as far as possible if you have airbags. Tilt the seat to give your belly more space.
- If you aren’t driving, sit in the back seat.
- Always see your doctor immediately after a car accident, even if you don’t feel like you are hurt.
Car Seats:
Every operator of a motor vehicle driven on Florida roads must provide for the protection of any child, 5 years of age or younger, by using a crash-tested, federally approved car seat. For children up to 3 years old, the restraint must be a separate carrier or a vehicle manufacturer’s integrated child seat. For children aged 4 through 5 years, a separate carrier, an integrated child seat, or a seat belt may be used. For passengers age 6 through 17 years, a seat belt.
Safe Driving:
Problems that frequently affect older people — such as changes in vision, arthritis or problems with memory — should lead some seniors to conclude that they can no longer drive safely.
The American Academy of Family Physicians says if you or loved ones have noticed a lapse in your driving skills, you should consider:
- Restricting driving only to certain times, such as during daylight hours.
- Working with an occupational or physical therapist.
- Adding devices to your car that can help you drive more safely, such as wider mirrors.
- Quitting driving altogether, and relying on friends, family or public transportation for rides.
Free Rides:
Throughout Florida, a number of programs offer free rides to individuals who have had too much to drink. Various taxi services; wrecker companies and other businesses may offer such services to keep impaired drivers from getting behind the wheel. AAA and Budweiser offer a service called Two to Go that provides private partygoers and licensed establishments a way to get people home safely. Adults in need of a ride can call 1-800-AAA-HELP. AAA will dispatch a two truck and will take both the driver and the vehicle home, free of charge. This service is available throughout Florida to both AAA members and non-members.
Injured in a bicycle or car accident? Contact Zimmet & Zimmet, your Daytona Beach Personal Injury Lawyers today!
