Child safety tips

Car safety
To protect youngsters from the danger of the sudden inflation of an air bag, Transport Canada recommends that children under twelve not ride in the front seat of vehicles equipped with air bags. Since neither you nor your child will always know whether the car you're riding in has air bags, make "kids in the back seat" the family rule for all vehicles.

Bicycle safety
Teach your kids that bicycles are not toys, they are road vehicles, and bike riders must follow the same traffic rules as car drivers.
• Obey all signs and traffic lights. nals for turning and
• Learn how to make the hand and arm signals for turning and stopping, and use them regularly.
• Ride single file behind any cars in your lane and with the flow of the traffic; stay at least a car door's length away from the cars parked at the side of the road.
• Avoid riding your bike on streets that have heavy traffic. If you have to use one, be aware of the blind spots that car and truck drivers might have for a cyclist. Parents might: put their child in the driver's seat of their own car to demonstrate what a blind spot is and how dangerous it would be when the vehicles are in motion.
• Keep off the sidewalks.
• The best routes for kids on bikes are the bike trails through parks or for distance sport riding.
• Make sure your children's bikes have the proper safety equipment, including a headlight and reflectors for biking at night.
• Cyclists should always wear a CSA approved helmet. Let your child select his own headgear - he's more likely to wear one if he has chosen it. Threequarters of cycling fatalities involve head injuries; 85 per cent of all cycling injuries could have been prevented if the riders had been wearing helmets. Since kids learn by example, wear your own helmet when you go biking with your kids.

In-line skating and skateboarding
If you think your child is ready for either a skateboard or in-line skates, be sure that you also purchase all the necessary protective gear. These skaters should protect their heads with helmets, their knees and elbows with protective pads, and their wrists with wrist guards.

Wrist injuries are the most common of all the injuries that skaters face. Wearing the wrist guards, your child will be ten times less likely to break his wrist in a fall.