Seoul's elementary schools will conduct mandatory courses on bicycle riding, with an emphasis on safety, officials said Wednesday. The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education has instructed the schools to introduce four hours of lessons on bicycle riding and safety tips a year.
"Many students ride bicycles to school or for physical exercise, but schools have been negligent in providing safety lessons," an official with the education office said. "This is one of the reasons for the rise in bicycle accidents."
According to police, there were a total of 10,915 bicycle-related traffic accidents in 2008. In particular, accidents involving children have been on the rise. In 2005, 257 elementary school students reported injuries from bicycle accidents. The figure rose to 388 in 2007.
With collaboration with the Seoul city administration, the education office has also distributed safety guidelines to schools. They are aimed at helping children dress properly for bicycle riding, abide by traffic signals and in how to deal with accidents.
According to a recent survey by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Management (KCDC), only three percent of children aged from three to 18 wear helmets while cycling.
The survey said 2.4 percent of children from 3 to 11 years old wore protective helmets in 2007 and 3.2 percent did so in 2008. In 2008, bicycle accidents accounted for 14 percent of traffic accident victims with 46 percent of them being under 20 years old.
In the United States, the helmet-wearing rate was 3.8 percent in 1991, but education and guidance campaigns raised the rate to 14.9 percent in 2007.
For more information please visit: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/03/117_62546.html
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