Helmet bylaw not being enforced
A year later youth in the city are still seen without head protection
Meagan Leonard
Northern News Services
Friday, May 29, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Many youth are still not wearing helmets and no fines have been handed out despite the city instating a bylaw a year ago banning children from riding bicycles and skateboards without helmets.
Dagan Pottle, 14, left, and Jayden Smith, 14 ride their bikes at the Yellowknife skate park. The boys said they do not usually wear helmets and have never sustained any injuries. - Meagan Leonard/NNSL photo |
The bylaw promised anyone caught without a helmet under the age of 18 would be handed a $25 fine but so far municipal enforcement officers have been relatively lenient when it comes to putting it into practice.
Municipal enforcement manager Doug Gillard says his department has been trying to use education and rewards as means of implementing the bylaw, with fines as a last resort. Children found wearing helmets will be given "happy tickets" - vouchers for free ice cream cones at McDonald's.
He said if an officer finds a child not wearing a helmet, typically they will ask them to walk their bike home but multiple infractions could lead to a fine.
"If you're talking to the same person over and over, then the idea is you have to give them negative reinforcement to get them to correct their behaviour," he said.
"At this point we're trying to use positive reinforcement to change the attitude of people."
When Yellowknifer visited the city skate park behind St. Joseph School, three of the children were not wearing helmets. When asked about their missing head protection, one 14-year-old responded, "my parents never make me wear one."
Another quipped, "I've never been injured, if I fall I just cover my head with my hands."
Gillard says limited staff means it is often difficult to devote the amount of time necessary to catch every person not wearing a helmet.
"A lot of things pull us in different directions every day ... so it's a matter of freeing up resources so we can spend more time on some things that are mandated by council," he said, adding this year bylaw will be increasing its time on the ground. "We are doing a lot more bike and foot patrols to get out of the vehicles and interact with the public on the trail systems."
Jackie Hardy is the founder of local charity Helmets for Hardy - a program that purchases helmets for children and families who may not be able to afford them. Hardy's son Josh was killed in July 2012 after he sustained a head injury in a longboarding accident. Now in its third year, she says the goal of the event is to raise awareness and try to prevent similar accidents in the future. Although she thought the bylaw was a positive step, Hardy says she questions its effectiveness when it does not include adults as well.
"Ninety per cent of kids will wear a helmet if the adults are wearing a helmet, verses 40 per cent when adults aren't wearing helmets," she said, adding enforcement has been an issue. "We're still seeing a lot of people under-age who are skateboarding and cycling and not wearing helmets."
Hardy says education is a big part of making a positive change and this is why they incorporate learning activities into their event each year.
She says many people assume if they are not doing tricks on a skateboard, then they do not need to wear head gear and she hopes her son's accident will emphasize this isn't the case.
"Josh wasn't doing tricks, he was just riding down the trail and he hit something," she explained. "Unfortunately he had to pass away to make people realize that this is a real thing. You're not invincible."
City councillor Niels Konge opposed the bylaw when it was originally brought forward and says he was not surprised to see no fines had been handed out.
"We were all kids once, we've got to break some rules, so that's a pretty easy one to break," he said with a laugh.
"Is bylaw really going to fine a six or seven-year-old who went to his friend's house to play and forgot his helmet on the trampoline after he went home?"
He said education and public awareness is the most effective way to instigate change - working the community instead of threatening negative reinforcement.
"Do I think helmets are a good thing? Absolutely. Do I make my kids wear them? Absolutely," Konge said.
"Do I wear mine? Yep I do, but I don't think legislation is the right way to go about it."
The bylaw came into effect last July and states anyone under the age of 18 must wear a CFA approved helmet when riding a bicycle or other wheeled item, including skateboards, rollerblades, wheeled skis or longboard.
