CHILDREN AND BICYCLES
DANGERS EMPHASISED DOCTOR URGES RESTRICTION AGE LIMIT OF 13 Comment upon the danger of allowing children of tender years to ride bicycles was passed by Dr. ;H. Gouldirig Rico when giving evidence at an inquest this morning concerning the death of a girl of TO years Who received fatal injuries as the result, of being nm over by a car yesterday afternoon .when. she Was cycling home from school. Dr. Rice emphasised the fact that children under 13 years did not possess the mentality to act in emergency, .and' Ho Urged that ah! ago limit for cyclists should be imposed. Furthermore, cycling .was a form of exercise which had a serious effect on the development of the child.
Dr. Rich stated that lie had felt for a long time that the right of, children of an immature age to use the roads for cycling should be taken away. “1 don’t think a child of 10 or 11 has tho mentality to avoid an accident under tho present conditions of traffic,” said Dr, Rice. “It is. not fair to the children or to the public, and in iny Opinion no child under 13 should be allowed to fide a bicycle. In reply to Mr. L. T. Burnat'd, tor. Rice stated that he spoke from his observation of the habits of children and their actions under emotional Stress, such us the sounding of a horn. “I don’t think a child can be ex pected to do the right thing at the right time,” he added. Dr. Rico admitted to Detective McLeod that such things frequently happened to cyclists of mature ago gjso. Detective McLeod: Do you' think that children having to go' several miles to school should be deprived of tl.o use, of bicycles? Dr. Rico;'Yes, in their own interests it would bo much better for them. , Walking is better exercise. Cycling us hot a desirable exorcise for children; it causes contraction of the chest. . . Detective McLeod: Tho.sattie, Would apply to motoring? Dr. Rico: A motorist is developed before he is allowed to drive. A child is not developed before he or she is BlJoWed to rWq % Iwoycle,
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBH19311024.2.32
Bibliographic details
Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17607, 24 October 1931, Page 4
Word Count
359CHILDREN AND BICYCLES Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17607, 24 October 1931, Page 4
Using This Item
The Gisborne Herald Company is the copyright owner for the Poverty Bay Herald. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Gisborne Herald Company. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.