Pleasanton Police Increasing Bike Helmet Enforcement

From the Pleasanton Police Department:

The Pleasanton Police Department and the Pleasanton Unified School District are working together to ensure the safety of students who ride their bikes to school. This is especially true of students in the middle schools, since they have the highest concentration of bike riders.

Pleasanton Police has a long standing tradition of traffic safety initiatives that work to prevent injuries to motorists, bicyclists and pedestrians. Our most effective tool however is public awareness, education and community cooperation.

There has been a noticeable trend of students failing or improperly wearing helmets while riding bikes, scooters, skateboards, or in-line roller blades to school and on the weekends. California State Law requires that a person under 18 years old shall wear a properly fitted and fastened bicycle helmet while riding a bicycle, a non-motorized scooter, a skateboard, or roller blade/skates.

In an effort to improve safety, build relationships with our youth and educate our youthful bicyclists Pleasanton Officers will be stopping students who are riding to or from school and are improperly or not wearing their helmets. During this time in lieu of citations, officers will be issuing Courtesy Citations and educating our students.

While we continue to encourage students to ride their bikes whenever and wherever it is appropriate, we believe that the student’s safety and well being are paramount and we encourage parents to ensure their child is properly equipped and provided with the greatest chance of safety from injury which may result from a collision or fall.

For more information regarding bike safety and other related local information for bicyclists, please visit: http://www.ci.pleasanton.ca.us/pdf/traffic/bikeways-map2012.pdf