PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — The number of traumatic bicycle injuries for children during the COVID-19 pandemic has skyrocketed, according to non profit Safe Kids Palm Beach County.
Palm Beach County schools closed back on March 13 for the virus. Since then, officials with Safe Kids Palm Beach County said traumatic youth injuries from bicycle accidents have risen 167 percent.
"People just need to stop, and they just really need to think, 'I'm not in this big of a hurry,'" said Jennifer Majors, a Palm Beach County resident. "There are other people out here, you know. It ain't just you about you."
Majors said she sees reckless drivers almost everyday when riding her bike in Palm Beach County.
"We've seen our lives flash before our eyes," said Majors.
In just five weeks following school closures in Palm Beach County, eight children suffered traumatic bicycle injuries.
"It doesn't surprise me. It saddens me," said Kathy Hall, the director of Safe Kids Palm Beach County. "Kids think they're invincible and love riding their bikes, just not following the rules of the road."
Hall defines traumatic as anything that has to do with a potential brain injury and says that 91 percent of children who went to hospitals since the beginning of 2019 were not wearing helmets.
"I think we have the answer to our problems, and I think parents and kids aren't using them," said Hall. "Everybody's thinking about the COVID and what's happening, and you know with working and home schooling, there could be some distracted drivers."
"It's the other people you've got to worry about," said Majors. "Just take it slow, because they're not," said Majors.