President’s Message: Keeping Families Safe by William T. Wood In the United States alone, a recent
study reports that there are 599,874 head injuries from bicycling and that only 27% of bicyclists own or have use of helmets. There are many children in our own state who receive head injuries while riding bi- cycles, even though these injuries are preventable with the proper use of safety helmets.
A while ago the President of ATLA at the time, Mark Mandell, asked the States to replicate a project that had been suc- cessfully launched by trial lawyers in the Northeast – a bicycle safety helmet pro- gram for children. The idea was to further the goal of promoting family safety as a national project with participation by all the state trial lawyer associations. This idea was presented to MTLA’s Board of Gov- ernors and was unanimously approved. After my installation as MTLA Presi- dent, I appointed the members of our Public Education Committee and desig- nated Nathaniel Fick, Esq., a leading advocate for injured children from Towson, as its Chair. The committee members are Berman Berger, Katherine Berkowitz, Richard Bloom, Robert Coyne, Michael Freilich, Lawrence S. Greenberg, Jennifer S. Lubinski, Nicole Schultheis, Simon Walton and myself. The committee established a goal of dis- tributing 1,000 bicycle helmets within the city of Baltimore in exchange for a prom- ise from each child that he/she will wear the helmet whenever riding a bicycle. The Project is being presented in con- junction with SAFE KIDS (affiliate of National SAFE KIDS and part of the National and Maryland Childhood Injury Prevention Agency). Karen Hardingham, RN, BSN, is head of Maryland Cares, University of Maryland Medical System / Baltimore Safe Kids Campaign, and is working with us as our primary coordi- nator and liaison with the Baltimore Safe Kids Campaign. MTLA will be working with Karen to educate the children and their families on the importance of wear- ing a bicycle helmet and on how to prevent serious injuries. All of this is in
Winter 2000
keeping with MTLA’s motto, “Keeping Families Safe.” Five schools have been identified in
Baltimore: Harford Heights Elementary School, Harriet Tubman Elementary School, Park Heights Elementary School, Cherry Hill Elementary School, and Holabird Elementary School. All of these schools are spread geographically through- out the city. Each school’s principal has been asked to identify 200 students who need a helmet and who would promise to wear it whenever they are riding their bikes. We have assured the schools that if more helmets are required, we will do our best to accommodate all students who need them. Our project will provide an introduc- tion to National SAFE KIDS WEEK, May 6th
- 13th . One week prior to this
time (May 1-5), the helmets will be pre- sented by local Maryland Trial Lawyers Association members, in conjunction with a safety presentation at each recipi- ent school so that the children are appropriately oriented to safe bike riding and correct helmet fitting and use. There will be five individual presentations at
each school. We are also hoping to have a major announcement of this project during that first week of May, prior to the individual presentations, which will be attended by elected officials and other interested people. We are reaching out to our members to help us purchase the 1,000 helmets. You have already received our letter and contribution form in the mail by now, and many of you have responded generously. But we still have a ways to go. If you think this is a worthwhile cause, please return the form on the back of this page with your contribution made payable to MTLA Bicycle Helmet Project for any amount that will make a difference. Also, plan to attend one of the helmet
presentations. We will keep you up-to- date and provide details concerning the times and locations of the week’s events. You will see many bright faces when these young boys and girls receive their free helmets from the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association.
I hope you enjoyed the holidays. Best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year.
Trial Reporter
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