Fulton Police Bike Rodeo Signals for Safety

by Janel Sullivan | June 3, 2013 5:41 am

FULTON, NY – For more than five years the Fulton Police Department has been hosting its annual bike rodeo for local kids at the War Memorial.

Overall, the event aims “To get the bike safety word out,” said Traffic Lt. Jason Delano who has been in charge of the event for the past three years.

“We want kids to learn the proper way to signal, the proper way to ride their bikes out on the roadway and enforce the importance of having helmets,” said Lt. Delano.

At Saturday’s Rodeo, kids could bring their own bikes or borrow one when they got there.

“If they bring their own bike it can be registered with the police department in case it gets lost or stolen,” Lt. Delano explained.

Oswego Health was one of the sponsors of the Fulton Bike Rodeo.

OH has been involved in this event for many years and provide staff who are certified to fit the helmets.

They had three staff members there on Saturday fitting helmets.

Each child was fitted with a free helmet before completing the obstacle course.

The helmets are provided through a grant funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration with a grant from the New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee.

Kids were lead through an obstacle course by a Fulton Police Bicycle Officer.

They learned the rules of the road, ranging from following the directives of road signs to learning hand signals.

Autumn was one of the kids going through the course with Officer Mike Batstone.

Autumn learned the hand signals for the first time and also said she learned, “You need to be careful of the signs and cars coming.”

Once the course was completed each child was given a ticket to be entered into a drawing for a free bike.

Several of the bikes were donated by Doyle’s bike shop, and one was donated by Dunkin Donuts.

Tracy Doyle was present at the event providing safety checks on bikes brought from home.

Along with Doyle’s and Dunkin Donuts; Menter’s Ambulance, Fulton Fire Department and Oswego County Sheriffs Department were also present at the event.

Kids and their families could take tours of the ambulance and Fulton’s brand new fire truck.
The Sheriff’s Office provided IDs and fingerprinted kids.

The event has been made possible with the generous financial and material support of the New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee, Dunkin Donuts, the Fulton Rotary Club, Fisher Signs and the Fulton Police Benevolent Association.

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/news/fulton/fulton-police-bike-rodeo-signals-for-safety/

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