Bike rodeo teaches bike safety

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

The Charles City Police Department worked with children from around Floyd County on bike safety.

Elementary students were invited to bring their bikes and attend a bike safety course, 9 a.m. at the North Grand Building. A free bike registration was also offered.

“The whole idea of the course is to give them an opportunity to see things they might encounter everyday,” Charles City Police Officer William Vetter said.

Behind the North Grand Building in the parking lot, children, police officers and volunteers went over the basics of bike safety. Proper bike signals were taught as the children went through the course.

Vetter thanked the school system for use of the parking lot, which the Charles City Police has lined with directions for the cyclists to ride around for the safety course.

“This course is for anybody enrolled in Charles City school system, elementary kids, so anybody from county can come in,” Vetter said. “Any Charles City resident, elementary kids, is welcome to come.”

The bike rodeo took place on a sunny day with 70 degree weather and little wind.

“We couldn’t have bought a better day,” Vetter said.

The course acts as a of biker’s education course, teaching the kids where they have to stop, to follow yield signs and to obey the rules of the road, Vetter said.

“We check the bikes for safety. We check the chains. We check the air pressure in the tires,” Vetter said. “We make sure the bikes are safe to ride before they go on the course.”

The volunteers made sure the kids were comfortable and knew when to stop and look both ways while riding their bikes.

“It’s really a great course, it lasts about an hour and half, and then we do a drawing at the end,” Vetter said.

The children were graded on their abilities and received a grade from each volunteer at stations, and had as many tries as they needed to understand.

Children that attended were able to get their bikes registered by the Charles City Police Department.

“Everybody that has a bike should register them,” Vetter said.

Registering a bike can help prevent theft and help police identify who a bike belongs to, Vetter said.

“We always check the registration of a bike to, hopefully, get it back to the owner,” Vetter said. “We’ll register anybody’s bike, that’s not a probably. All you have to do is live in the county.”

The police have done search warrant in the past, where they find several bikes in a garage.

“If we have those bicycle registration numbers we can call the owner and get it right back to them,” Vetter said.

Several Charles City businesses donated bikes and bike safety related items.

Family Community Credit Union, First Security Bank and Trust, First Citizens National Bank, State Bank, Cresco Union Savings Bank, Quality Auto Service, The Rustic Corner, McDonald’s, K-Mart, Charles City Parks and Recreation and the Exchange Club all helped sponsor the event.