Parents, seriously instruct your children in bicycle safety: tell them to look out for turning cars, car doors that are flung open, and inconsiderate drivers who cut off riders. Yes, even in Flatbush there are rude drivers. Your children, regardless of age, must ride defensively.
Regardless of age, all riders must wear helmets. (It saved my grandson. His bike slid, he fell, bounced along the bike path, cracked his helmet but, thank God, was able to get up and ride home.)
Drivers, are you considerate of bike riders or do you rush to make a turn or make the light even if it means cutting a bike rider off? Do you look back before opening your car door even if you are a passenger? (I was knocked down once and have had a number of close calls recently.)
Negligent driving seems to be a growing problem in the frum community. When I tell frum drivers they must look out for bicycle riders, some respond with a flippant remark like “Stay off the street.” On the way home from shul one evening last week I was cut off by two frum drivers in a rush to make a turn. Had I not been riding defensively, I would have become a statistic.
It doesn’t matter if the driver who killed Leeor Devora was negligent and didn’t see her or was in a rush and just cut her off. What matters is that less than two weeks ago Leeor Devora was happily singing at her family’s Shabbat table. The following Thursday her parents buried her.
Aaron Kinsberg
Brooklyn, NY