Please make sure your kids have brakes on their bikes

[chager]

http://www.nbc4i.com/news/3672736/detail.html

It has come out that the boy had taken the brakes off his bike to do tricks on it. He was riding too fast towards an intersection to stop with his feet. Unfortunately it cost him his life.Everyone is now talking about what a great kid the boy was and how he will be missed. Such a preventable accident. Please check your kids' bikes and make sure they aren't altered!

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Good advice and my heart goes out to his family. A senseless tradgedy.

 

[ErikdaRed]

I'm sorry, but if he took the brakes off his bike he was an idiot. Would we be crying if a man pulled the brakes off his car and got in an accident?

 

[Ibelieveinfairies]

Originally posted by ErikdaRed
I'm sorry, but if he took the brakes off his bike he was an idiot. Would we be crying if a man pulled the brakes off his car and got in an accident?

I'm sorry, but I take offense to your negativity...the young man was 15...who among us had tons of common sense at that age?! Apparently there are some here who still don't have a healthy dose of common sense even now!

 

[ErikdaRed]

He is one year away from being able to drive, he should have common sense enough to not ride a bike without brakes in traffic.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Originally posted by ErikdaRed
I'm sorry, but if he took the brakes off his bike he was an idiot. Would we be crying if a man pulled the brakes off his car and got in an accident?

Would you say that to his mother's face?
Would you feel this way if it was your 15 year old?
Were you 100% perfect at 15?? I was a smart kid and consider myself a smart person now, but I admit, I did some dumb things at 15....

 

[MICKEY88]

Originally posted by ErikdaRed
I'm sorry, but if he took the brakes off his bike he was an idiot. Would we be crying if a man pulled the brakes off his car and got in an accident?

a man should have more common sense than a teenager, teenagers still have a sense of immortality, no real sense of danger..
while what he did was not the best move in the world, it's far from the worst thing teenagers do,,,

I agree with previous posters,, I also did some things as a teenager that in retrospect were really stupid and dangerous, does that make me an idiot....NO, it makes me a normal teenager.....

if you have children I hope you are more compassionate when they make mistakes..

 

[SandraM]

Originally posted by ErikdaRed
He is one year away from being able to drive, he should have common sense enough to not ride a bike without brakes in traffic.

So what are you saying, he deserved it?
He would hardly have done it if he had believed it would result in his death

To the OP, thank you, that is good advice. Sometimes it is easy to forget that our teenagers think they are invincible and will do dangerous things. One of the saddest things is to see a bereaved family where a young person has inadvertently caused their own death. I feel so badly for that family.

 

[Kallison]

Originally posted by ErikdaRed
I'm sorry, but if he took the brakes off his bike he was an idiot. Would we be crying if a man pulled the brakes off his car and got in an accident?

omigosh -- do you even have kids?? They don't use their common sense on a daily basis! They also think they are invincible and nothing will happen to them. What a horrid thing to say.

 

[DukeStreetKing]

Originally posted by ErikdaRed
I'm sorry, but if he took the brakes off his bike he was an idiot. Would we be crying if a man pulled the brakes off his car and got in an accident?

Dang, dude, you make me look like Mother Teresa next to you! I'll agree it wasn't the smartest thing to do, but I'm sure he didn't expect it to end the way it did. We all did stupid things as kids and I'm surprised I didn't kill myself with some of them, but, wow, that's a tough statement to make.

 

[chager]

The reason I posted this is because kids tend not think beyond the immediate situation. I am sure when this kid took the brakes off he was not thinking about what would happen if he was in traffic and couldn't stop. (I have a 16yr old nephew that has done some really stupid things. Hind sight is 20/20 and he usually realizes after how stupid something was. Of course the first thing I did this morning was ask him about his bike.) The boy's family is in my prayers. I can't imagine how his mom and dad feel. How totally preventable this was. I know I also had the "how stupid can you be" thought at some point. However I would never think a child deserves to die because they made a dumb choice. I'm sure this boy thought he would be able to stop using his feet and he most likely had several times before. I also think that as parents we sometimes forget our children will make poor choices and we need to make sure they are being safe. (Ds is 10 and has already made his fair share and I know there will be more to come. How I will survive them I don't know, I just want him to live through them) This whole situation is just a reminder to us that kids really need to be watched even when they are teens. I know I would have never thought in a million years to check my son's bike brakes to make sure he hadn't removed them. I will now.

 

[tiggerlover]

I know when I was a teen I lacked common sense, as did all of my friends. What a tragedy and what a loss. Thank you for the link and the reminder for our children.

 

[kidzmom3]

It's a good idea to check your kids bikes every once in a while anyway. 2 weeks ago at our local bike rodeo(run by the police), they had some bike experts to check out bikes and make minor repairs. They told me my 6 year old's bike was dangerous. A nice bike in good condition, or so I thought. But her brake pads were worn (its a hand me down), and the handle bars had been pulled up too far. I had no idea! Luckily, believe it or not, they were raffeling off 4 new bikes and my DD WON! A brand new schwinn girls 20 inch bike. Its fantastic.

If your community has a bike rodeo, attend.

If they don't, think about starting one. Ours gave out 103 brand new helmets, to kids who either did not have one at all, or whos did not fit or was not safe. All bikes were checked for safety. All kids went through the course and were taught some basic safety rules and new maneuvers (?sp) They interacted with local police in a friendly and fun manner. There was even a bike race. Also back to the raffel, almost every kid won something from the 4 bikes to water bottles, bike locks, horns, streamers etc....

 

[Ibelieveinfairies]

kidzmom3, that's great!

chager, I was so offended with that post about it being the boy's fault, that I forgot to thank you for making us all more aware of a danger to our children (almost adult or not). So, thank you!

 

[Tigger&Belle]

The reason that teenagers still usually live with their parents is that they don't have the judgement and maturity of adults. They are not little adults, even if they look the part. And it doesn't magically happen at a certain age. My kids are 16, 13, 10, and 4 and the things that the older two do and say amaze me sometimes. They are good and smart kids, but it is sometimes quite obviously that they lack some judgement and maturity that comes with age and experience.

I feel bad for the family of that boy. How tragic!

T&B

 

[ErikdaRed]

I feel sorry for the parents who lost their child. I feel very sorry for the person that hit and killed the child. I don't feel sorry for the child who removed an important SAFETY DEVICE and got killed being an idiot. He could have just fallen off the bike before getting into traffic.

And yes I would feel horrible, and feel like a bad parent if this happened to me... but I would also hope to have taught my 15 year old the rules of the road and safety. At what point do we stop sheltering children and hold them responsible for their own behavior?

Tragedy would be a someone getting killed while doing everything possible to stay safe, not someone operating unsafe equipment and ending up in an accident.

 

[DukeStreetKing]

I don't know if you have any children or not, but despite the best efforts and teachings of parents, our kids are going to do what they are going to do regardless if it's right or wrong. They just don't think logically all the time. It's easy to say the boy could have fallen off his bike before he got into traffic. I would imagine he didn't expect to end up in traffic in the first place.

Again, I don't know if you have kids or not, but good luck when you do. You will be in for quite a ride.

 

[MICKEY88]

Originally posted by ErikdaRed
I feel sorry for the parents who lost their child. I feel very sorry for the person that hit and killed the child. I don't feel sorry for the child who removed an important SAFETY DEVICE and got killed being an idiot. He could have just fallen off the bike before getting into traffic.

And yes I would feel horrible, and feel like a bad parent if this happened to me... but I would also hope to have taught my 15 year old the rules of the road and safety. At what point do we stop sheltering children and hold them responsible for their own behavior?

Tragedy would be a someone getting killed while doing everything possible to stay safe, not someone operating unsafe equipment and ending up in an accident.

there's a big difference between sheltering children and holding them responsible for their actions, and calling a kid an idiot because they make a poor decision,

the problem is teenagers don't always think action all the way thru to conclusion, or alternate conclusions...


explain your comment as many ways as you like, I doubt you'll find many people if any that will agree with your harsh statement of a childs mistake..

 

[SandraM]

Originally posted by ErikdaRed
I don't feel sorry for the child who removed an important SAFETY DEVICE and got killed being an idiot.

I guess you're lucky you're perfect. Personally I'm sure I did silly things when I was younger, but was lucky enough to get away with it. Certainly I know plenty of people who have said things like "When I remember some of the stuff I did when I was a teenager I wonder how I didn't get killed". They, like me, were lucky. This poor kid wasn't.

Tell you what, you needn't worry about not feeling sorry for the child who was killed, I have sympathy enough for the both of us.

 

[ErikdaRed]

Never said I was perfect, I got into plenty of trouble as a teen. I just never put my life in jeopardy. And the kid removed his brakes and it got him killed, not quite a Darwin award, but maybe an honorable mention.

And I'm not worried about the kid dying, he reaped what he sowed.

And I have more sympathy for the poor person that killed the kid, they will carry that with them for their lives, all for a really bonehead manuever of the precious child.