Teens Push For Helmet Law After Friend Dies
Boy Dies After Hitting Head While Riding Skateboard
UPDATED: 11:52 am EDT June 9,
2004
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A group of Indiana teenagers is pushing for a mandatory helmet law for skateboarders after one of their friends died Friday.
Matt Jennings, 14, died after hitting his head while riding his skateboard, television station WRTV reported.Jennings' friends are turning their grief into action by collecting names on a petition that they plan to forward to state legislators."We have almost 600 signatures, and we're going to make it a law that you have to wear a helmet when you ride a skateboard. We're going to call it Matt's Law," Jennings' friend Brittney Sauer said.Sauer also wrote a letter to Gov. Joe Kernan and President George W. Bush asking that helmet laws be passed in Jennings' memory.State Rep. Peggy Welch of Bloomington said she plans to introduce the legislation during next year's session, the station reported.Carol Touloukian of the American Academy of Pediatrics is also pushing for a skateboard helmet law. Experts say that helmets are 85 percent effective in preventing serious brain injuries when worn correctly."Unfortunately, I think it takes a tragic event to happen before it gets people's attention about how serious this is," Touloukian said.The incident has also prompted Jenning's friend Eric Laclar to wear a helmet."I didn't even have one up until this happened," Laclar said. "I went and got one Friday, the day that he died."
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