Day Laborers in Los Angeles will Benefit from Bicycle Helmets, Accident Prevention Training

Day laborers in Los Angeles, who use bicycles as their primary means for commuting every day, will soon benefit from a grant awarded by Kaiser Permanente to the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition.

The grant of $25,000 has been awarded by Kaiser as part of its community service efforts.  According to Kaiser representatives, the recent daylight savings time change will make it even more important for bicyclists to be more visible on the streets. The grant money will be used by the LACBC to purchase special bicycle lights and bike helmets for day laborers. Some of the grant money will also be used to conduct bicycle safety workshops through the efforts of the Central American Resource Center, the UCLA Labor Center and the Bicycle Kitchen.

Most of these laborers ride in the early morning hours and late in the evening when visibility may be lower, making bicyclists harder to spot and increasing the risk of an accident. For most of these day laborers, biking to work is not just a health exercise, but also their only means of commute.  Investments in better safety training and safety gear for these people will help prevent accidents.

Last month, a study of bicycle accident victims over a period of 10 years showed that the severity of injuries sustained by cyclists in such accidents, was actually increasing. The study focused on more than 300 bicycle accident victims, who had been hospitalized for treatment of their injuries. The researchers found that the severity of bicycle injuries had actually increased during the study period. While chest injuries had increased by 15 percent in the 10 years, the severity of abdominal injuries had increased 4 times.

More worryingly for the researchers and for California bicycle accident lawyers, helmet usage rates were shown to have not increased. This is in spite of a growing number of people bicycling to work, and elsewhere. That means that more numbers of Americans are choosing biking as a cleaner, more fuel efficient way of getting around, but are failing to equip themselves with proper personal safety equipment that can save their lives in an accident. In fact, researchers found that lack of helmet use led to 1/3 of the bicycle accident victims suffering a head injury.

Bicycle safety was in the news last month as a Los Angeles doctor who injured two bicyclists in a fit of road rage went on trial, and was convicted. For Los Angeles bicycle accident attorneys, Christopher Thomas Thompson’s behavior was shameful, but not unheard of. Bicyclists tend to be at the receiving end of motorist aggression and hostility. In such situations, it’s the cyclists, like the two injured bicyclists who were at the receiving end of Thompson’s wrath, who suffer the consequences.

While Kaiser’s grant may not do much to change motorist attitudes towards bicyclists, which is an important part of bicycle safety. However the efforts like this safety program can help prevent bicycle accidents, and minimize the risk of serious injuries in such collisions.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of bicycle accidents. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not acting as legal counsel for any party in the matters discussed in this posting.