Each year there are about 800 bicycle related fatalities and another half-million bicycle injuries in our nation’s hospitals.  The Pell City Police Department is sponsoring a Bicycle Rodeo this month to make sure our community’s children are protected from becoming one of those statistics.  With Spring just around the corner, this free event promises to be both timely, exciting, and educational.

The Pell City Bike Patrol Unit invites everyone to the Lakeside Park on March 19 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. for this year’s rodeo.  The first 100 participants will receive gold medals and everyone will enjoy the courses and static displays.  At 10 a.m. sharp the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office STAR 2 helicopter will perform a flyover and land in the park as the rodeo begins.  Youth are asked to bring their bikes and their helmets as they register at the big pavilion and get a free bicycle and helmet inspection offered by the Pell City Kiwanis Club.  The department is also offering free child fingerprinting as part of their Operation Safe ID program that will be stationed near the registration table.  Other organizations assisting in the program include the Pell City Key Club and the Pell City JROTC Program.

The bike rodeo courses that will be offered are:

“Rocket Rider”: Speed course using police radar to capture the rider’s top speed.

“Bouncing Ball”: Riders negotiate a course carrying a ping pong ball in a spoon.

“Good Old Days”:  Go back to the days of newspaper delivery by bicycle.  Riders will toss newspapers into baskets while riding.

“Turtle Race”: A reverse drag race where riders go down straight lanes with the objective being to be the last to cross finish line without stopping or putting a foot down.

The safety and skill events will include:

“Crazy Cross Roads”:  Teaches safety while riding into intersections. Emphasizes stop, look, signal and then proceed.

“Demon Driveway”:  Teaches properly exiting a driveway of merging onto a roadway Emphasizes stop and look as well as learning skills for a proper start from a stop.

“Rocky Road”: Teaches obstacle avoidance while looking for traffic and hazards while maintaining balance and control.

Some of the planned displays include:

Tactical vehicles, Police and Rescue Boats from the City and State Police, Police Blue Knights, Fire Trucks and the Fire Department Smoke House, Police K-9 Demonstrations, STAR 2 Helicopter, Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hales Corvette Interceptor, U.S. Army Display