"Always Wear Your Helmet and Ride with Friends"

Nate, Brandon, Andrew, Tyler, Noah, Dylan

The Delran Police started an initiative a few months ago where we have been stopping kids for doing the right thing and giving them a free ice cream, pizza slices, or other items. We have found many kids doing the right thing this summer most of them were caught wearing their bicycle helmet and their pictures have been place on our social media page.

                We recently found out about an incident that happened in town where one of our young residents was riding his bicycle and after taking his hands off the handle bars (which he stated he learned a valuable lesson about keeping both hands on the handle bars) fell to the ground and was initially not responsive. Brandon was very fortunate that he was wearing his helmet and from the attached photographs you can see that he was banged up including broken bones and many bruises. After his mother and father took Brandon to see several doctors they all stated that if he was not wearing his helmet at the time of the crash he probably would have sustained a very serious head injury.

                Detective Irons and Lt. Williams met with all the kids that were with Brandon at the time of the crash with the exception of Mason who was not available. We learned that one of the youngest in the group Dylan grabbed Brandon's phone and called Brandon's mother to get help. Some of the other kids like Tyler ran to neighbors houses to get someone to call 911 for help. These actions allowed for a quick response to take care of Brandon. We applaud all the kids for doing the right thing! (They all stated that they were wearing their helmets on this day also) All the kids were given tickets for ice cream, pizza and boost. They surely deserve it for how they acted to help a friend in need.

                We hope this story will remind kids and parents alike to wear their helmet whenever they go for a bike ride, who knows it could save your life. After speaking with Brandon's parents and hearing how scared they were to get the news of their son lying on the ground injured and all the thoughts running through their heads while they were trying to get to him puts the importance of helmets and good friends at the top of the list. Without the helmet and the quick thinking of Brandon's friends this day could have lived up to the thoughts in his parent’s heads. Thankfully Brandon is doing well and should be back to riding his bike (with both hands) in a few months.

                Thank you for sharing your story with us and get will soon!