“It was very difficult to deal with,” said Akron resident Mike Dies.
Last year he and his wife Missy Dies experienced something no parent would want to go through.
He expressed, “when any kid gets hurt it’s hard for me to see, especially when it’s your own.”
Their 9-year-old daughter Ashley was on a bike ride that took a scary turn to the emergency room.
“She spilt her forehead,” he explained. “She had 10 stitches on her forehead, road rash on the side of her face, and then when she landed she hit her four front teeth--they were all shattered.”
Thankfully she was wearing a helmet. Their story is one reason why Goodyear and Akron Children's Hospital are teaming up to better kids' safety equipment and awareness.
Bill Considine, president and CEO at Akron Children’s Hospital, said, "we want to make sure that our children in the course of what they do in a day are safe…we’re trying to prevent injuries that we’re seeing coming into our emergency rooms.”
The hospital will expand its childhood safety program focusing on child passenger safety, education for teenage drivers and helmet safety.
“The momentum is going to be on education, creating awareness,” said Considine. “We’re also going to put more product at play there are a number of children in the community that don’t have the financial ability to have a bike helmet or to get driving classes.”
And at the event today, the whole idea was for kids to get excited about safety and each kid left with a helmet fit specifically to their head.
The new initiative was something the Dies family told me they’re thankful for.
“They can prevent an injury and get a head start on it, this is, this is great,” said Mike Dies.
And his wife offered a piece of advice. “Make sure your kids wear helmets. I don’t like to think about what could of happened if she didn’t have it on.”
In 2014, nearly 500 children went to the emergency room for bike injuries. The Goodyear Foundation is giving $500,000 to help bring down those numbers.
