Page 3881 - Week 12 - Thursday, 21 October 1993

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MINISTER FOR URBAN SERVICES

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY QUESTION

QUESTION 1005

Bicycle Helmets - Education Campaign

Mr Cornwell - asked the Minister for Urban Services:

(1) Does an education campaign to encourage the use of bicycle helmets operate in the ACT.

(2) If so, how and if not, why not.

Mr Connolly - the answer to the Members question is as follows:

(1) Yes. A number of agencies encourage the use of bicycle helmets in the ACT.

(2) These include:

ACT Road Safety Unit

Directly targets pre-school and primary school children (ages 4 - 12 years), running programs within primary and pre-schools on request. Programs run in all ACT pre-schools and the majority of primary schools.

Pre-school children receive a general road safety program, including the promotion of helmet wearing, the reasons they are worn, and the importance of always riding with an adult.

The junior primary program (Kindergarten to Year 2) involves the use of puppets wearing bicycle helmets, a discussion with the children on why they should wear helmets, as well as general road safety.

The senior primary program (Year 3 to Year 6) involves a 40 minute discussion on bicycle helmets. Included in this session are the reasons helmets are worn, the safety features, fitting and adjusting the helmet and examples that have been in accidents and saved lives.

In addition to these programs, the ACT Helmet kit was released on 21 September 1993 and distributed to all ACT primary schools. The kit was developed in response to observations by road safety field officers that helmet wearing rates were high in primary schools, but that helmets were not fitted properly.

3881

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