Richard Ward Age 12
Shoemaker School
Essay on bicycle safety

I have been a part of the Neighborhood Bicycle Works program for almost two years. I took the course and graduated. Now I am advanced. I help fix people's bikes in the Haddington program. We help people fix their bikes. We do bike safety checks. I am training for a diagnostic bike safety assessment so I can do more community service. I still come here because I like to help other people with their bikes.

I came to bike works because I have an accident on 56th Street at the Market Street intersection. I was crossing the intersection on my bike on the right where I was supposed to be. I had the green light. I turned right at the intersection. A man in a car ran the red light and his car hit my bicycle. I was trying to jump off the bicycle before it hit me. The driver of the car slowed down and I could see him laughing. Then he drove on. Two ladies crossing the street asked if I was all right. I said, "Yes." Once I got home my leg really started hurting. My mother called the ambulance and the ambulance took me to Children's Hospital where X-rays were taken. They told me my leg was not broken, that I had a sprained muscle. My mom helped me to get in the car to take me home. I had to stay off my leg, prop it up and soak it in hot water for the next four days.

I decided to come to Neighborhood Bike Works after I rode too fast, fell off my bike and split my chin open. Blood was everywhere. I was going too fast and I flipped over the handle bars. When my stitches came out I joined the bike workshop. I don't ride my bicycle so fast anymore and I walk it across the intersection.