(Atlantic, IA) – Atlantic Kiwanis Club representative Karla Akers, Wednesday evening, addressed the Atlantic City Council with regard to electronic bike and scooter safety (e-bike & e-scooters) issues. Akers said Atlantic, Anita and other communities in Cass County (and elsewhere for that matter), have issues with “road and helmet safety.”
She says the Kiwanis Club tries to get to the third-graders, because 60-percent of non-fatal injuries occur to children under the age of 10. Their focus was primarily on bicycle safety, but that focus has shifted more toward e-bike and e-scooter safety.
Akers says after being involved with the fittings of bicycle helmets for children for the past 15-years, she became concerned about the use of e-bikes and e-scooters, especially when she moved from the country to the City of Anita,
She said the Kiwanis have developed a brochure, developed by the Atlantic High School, that part of the club’s helmet budget will be used toward, as well as a poster, which the Atlantic Public Library printed, and the Anita Library laminated. The posters and brochures, she said, are not free for the Kiwanis.
Akers said the brochures will be handed-out when they hold their helmet fittings. She asked the Council, what else can the organization do, in Cass County, to provide safety to our kids.
She says she knows, from being a public health official, that kids can’t be made to wear a helmet by law or ordinance, but to let the Kiwanis know what the organization can do to help spread the word about e-bike and e-scooter safety, and the importance of wearing a helmet when riding those devices.
