Police teach kids bike safety at annual rodeo

Sault City Police Officer Daryl Meyette, and others, spent part of their Saturday teaching bicycle safety to young kids at the annual Sault Ste. Marie Bike Rodeo at the Norris Center parking lot at Lake Superior State University (LSSU).

This is the second year of the Bike Rodeo post-COVID. Several were held before the pandemic hit.

Kids up to age 12 and their families learned the rules of the road, practice safe riding skills on fun obstacle courses and build confidence on two wheels.

Soo Cycle Bike Shop was on hand to look over each child’s bike.

“We had a pretty good turn out. We are teaching kids about bicycle safety. That’s the most important thing. We gave away free helmets donated by MyMichigan Health. We put the kids through obstacle courses, teach them bike-safety skills, standing for traffic and cars and how to stop safely and ride at safe speed. Crashes on a bicycle don’t always involve a vehicle. Sometimes it’s someone out riding a bike and they crash.” Meyette said.

Four certified bike patrol officers were at the rodeo along with entire LSSU MCOLES academy.

“Last year we sent four officers to get certified and we sent two more this year so now we have a total of six officers that did 32 hours of mountain bike training so now they are certified. We are thankful for the community support. We think it’s really important to start the kids off right to learn of rules of the road. Bicycles and cars need to learn to share the road. That’s what it comes down to and we are trying to teach that to the younger generation,” Meyette concluded.