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City Council Committee Passes Bill Requiring Children To Wear Helmets When Riding Hoverboards

By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia parents planning to purchase hoverboards for their children should also plan on buying helmets and joint guards.

A city council committee has passed a bill requiring children under 12 to wear bike helmets, knee pads, elbow pads and wrist guards when riding hoverboards or any similar devices.

Sponsor Bill Greenlee read written testimony from Emergency room Dr. Theodore Christopher.

"Quote, in my emergency department alone at Jefferson, one day after the holidays, we sent seven patients with fractured hands, wrists and arms to see one of our hand surgeons. He called it a 'hoverboard epidemic.'"

Philadelphia Police also testified in support, though Captain Francis Healey says he hopes not a lot of enforcement will be necessary.

"Our hope is that this bill will serve as a public awareness vehicle especially for parents of smaller children to make sure that children who are permitted to use hoverboards are prepared for the inevitable falls. This is a common sense requirement and I hope it will move parents to take the appropriate steps to prepare their children."

The bill now goes to the full council where it is expected to pass.

 

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