COLUMBUS – Nearly 9,000 bicycle helmets were shipped out to children across Ohio as Bike Helmet Safety Week was observed across the nation.
The donation of the helmets being to more than 140 school and community events in Ohio are the Put A Lid On It! campaign, a continued partnership between the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Ohio Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
ODOT contributed approximately 6,500 of the 8.928 helmets, thanks in part to a $12,000 grant from Honda of America.
The helmets will be provided at no cost to children across Ohio by police agencies, community organizations, Safe Routes to School Programs, Safe Communities Programs, and other who applied for them and were selected based on need, ODOT spokesman Matt Bruning said.
Almost 650 of the helmets will find their way to central Ohio organizations and events, including the Columbus Public Health Bike to School Month program, Pataskala Elementary School’s Safety Awareness Day, Fairfield County Safety Town and the Touch-A-Truck event in Worthington.
While bicycle related fatalities only represent 4 percent of roadway fatalities, they are on the rise statewide, Bruning said.
Between 2009 and 2018, 182 Ohioans were killed while riding a bicycle, a 22 percent increase. Twelve percent of bicycle-related fatalities in the last five years were children between the ages of 5 to 14.