MedLink Health Connections Podcast

Beyond Helmets: Summer Riding Safety with Dr. Reece & Jennifer Rubner, CPNP

• MedLink Georgia • Season 1 • Episode 15

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Summer brings outdoor fun—and serious risks for young riders. Pediatrician Dr. Elizabeth Reece and pediatric nurse practitioner Jennifer Rubner from MedLink share essential safety tips to help families avoid ER visits.

They go beyond basic helmet advice, explaining why fit matters, hand-me-downs don’t cut it, and why even short rides need protection. The episode also tackles ATV and dirt bike safety, emphasizing that these are powerful vehicles—not toys—and should never be operated by kids under 16.

Lawn mower safety, often overlooked, gets special attention. Learn why children should never ride as passengers, when kids are old enough to mow, and how to prevent accidents caused by noise and flying debris.

Whether your child is biking, riding, or helping with yard work, this episode offers practical, expert-backed safety guidance. Subscribe to MedLink Health Connections and visit medlinkga.org for more family health resources.

Speaker 1:

Today we're joined with Dr Elizabeth Reese, a pediatrician, and Jennifer Rubner, a certified pediatric nurse practitioner, both from our Banks and Danielsville offices. Together they'll be sharing valuable insights involving things with wheels. Stay tuned for our expert advice. So during the summer, we're talking about summer safety. Mostly During the summer, you're gonna be outside. Obviously, some things that you might do outside you might rollerblade, you might ride your bike, you might cut the grass, you might have a four-wheeler or ATV, you might have a four wheeler or a TV, we might have a dirt bike. All of these things are fun to do, even in not even just in summer, even then the winter. Some of these things. What are your best advice on safety for these various?

Speaker 2:

things always wear a helmet and not just any helmet that you grabbed that you thought was your brother's ones. It needs to be a well-fitting helmet that's not been in an accident before, so you can't crash it and then still use the same helmet. You need a new one, but that helmet needs to fit your child well. Hand-me-downs are not great in terms for helmet. They're not safe. So you want a well-fitting helmet that's for your kid age. Appropriate every time, all the time, no exceptions. That's the rule. If you are riding on something that you can crash into, anything you're riding your bike, you can fall down on your roller skates, your dirt bike, atv. You need to protect the most important part of your body, which is your brain.

Speaker 3:

And so you need a helmet. They recommend that it covers, that it sits level on your head and covers your forehead. It's not tipped forward or backward and two fingers fit underneath, fit between the chin and the chin strap. Make sure it's the right size for your child. And if you do have a question, you can. You can bring it in and we can help you to make sure that it looks like it fits. But yeah, the same way that you don't want to buy a bike that's two sizes too big, thinking that they're going to grow into it you don't want to buy a helmet. That's two sizes too big, thinking that they'll grow into it I would say probably.

Speaker 1:

I'm not a doctor or a provider, but if you know, if you have to buy a helmet a week later, I think it's safe to say that's.

Speaker 3:

Important and then really like it some. Some of the accidents can happen in your driveway or just on your sidewalk Down the street, so unfortunately it doesn't mean you had to take a very long you know Three mile bike ride to have an accident. So having it on all the time is really important.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, my have an accident, so having it on all the time is really important. Oh yeah, my. On my property alone, my kid can tumble down any sort of number of hills on her bike. Um and their. Her first instinct is not necessarily to put her hands out to catch herself, so helmet every time now on atvs.

Speaker 3:

um, we really recommend that children under 16 should not drive atVs. It's just the having to be so aware of all the surroundings and what's going on around them that makes it something that more an older child would be able to do. That not riding double. When you're on an ATV, there's a much higher frequency of instability of the ATV and therefore accidents. And then making sure that they do wear helmets, eye protectors, closed shoes how Jen was saying, crocs aren't the best shoe for riding either, because that doesn't stay on if you happen to get in an accident and they're going to have more damage to their feet. Making sure you're using flags and reflectors and lights to make your ATV more visible so that you don't run into another ATV or into another person or nobody's in your path when you're driving.

Speaker 2:

I think the big thing with ATVs, and sometimes dirt bikes too, is people think of them as purely recreational toys and they're really a vehicle with a motor, and so you're putting a child in a vehicle with a motor and it can be very dangerous and we don't think of them as being very dangerous.

Speaker 2:

But they are very dangerous. Atvs are very unstable, especially when they're going faster on unstable terrain, and flipping an ATV is actually very, very dangerous in terms of injury for children, and so it's just not something that a lot of people think of as a dangerous item. They think of it more of a recreational toy. But we really should be thinking of a dirt bike and an ATV as a dangerous. You know it is a dangerous vehicle and there should be supervision. There should be some teaching involved with even the teenagers that are riding them, you know, on safety, on how to ride them, how to ride them properly, not to go too fast. You know what could cause crashes. There is a lot more injuries involving these, you know, atvs and dirt bikes than people really think that there are.

Speaker 3:

And really any wheeled vehicle, because sometimes even golf carts. You can get those to speed. If you're on an uneven terrain it's easy to flip and then when those land on kids, I've seen injuries that can occur with those as well. But yeah, it's just being aware and watching how they ride and not letting them use them sort of as an extension of I'm going to go as fast and far as I can. They sometimes try to outdo each other when they're all on riding them. So just being there and having them take care with the riding.

Speaker 2:

And if they are riding, if they're an older teenager and they're out riding you know because I know where a lot of us live you know they're out on open land or roads and so you know. Let somebody know that you're out riding. Make sure that you know, even if you're 16, 17, 18 years old and I know that you feel very responsible tell somebody that you're taking the ATV out and that you should be back around such and such time so that, if you're not, that they can come find you and you're not just lying under an ATV with a tree and looking at the owl at you waiting for someone to realize that you took the ATV out.

Speaker 3:

You know another wheeled vehicle that you mentioned was lawnmowers, and the same way that we say with safety is just age-wise. Just make sure if you're, you know teaching your kids responsibility, which is great, and teaching them maybe how to mow the lawn. Maybe they're gonna earn some of their money from that and that's wonderful. Do you have some, you know, some safety instruction? Because again it's got a motor and that gets hot so that can cause burns, and then it's obviously got a blade that's cutting the grass. That can be a big source of danger if we're not careful with that.

Speaker 3:

So the recommendations are really even from the safety instructions with the people that make the lawnmowers is that no one under age 12 operates a walk-behind push mower and that you'd be at least 16 years of age to operate a riding mower.

Speaker 3:

If you're out mowing, we recommend that kids do not sit on your lap or as passengers. It's in a bumpy terrain it's easy for a child to slip off and if your weight is still on that and the blade's engaged, if you cannot turn that on fast enough, obviously that can be a big hazard that that could run over a small child. So you know, encouraging them not to do that or to turn that on when you're not there and in keeping them inside or a safe distance away from the mower, because I I would think everyone maybe who's ever done a push mower or even or a riding mower has had the experience where you run over a rock or something that you didn't see when you were and you hear that horrible sound and it throws it out of the you know, out of where the blade is um, and if that hits somebody when it's going out, that could be really dangerous to any um smaller child as well also with small children.

Speaker 2:

um, you know, never assume that the person on the riding mower can hear that child, so they may be running up you know, daddy, daddy, mommy, mommy, whoever's mowing the lawn and that person on that lawnmower, they cannot hear that child running up to them.

Speaker 2:

So keeping that safe distance is very important, because that person on that lawnmower has no idea they're even there. Um, so you know, if you're coming home and you know one of the parents is mowing the lawn, you know, no, we'll go talk to them when they're done, when the mower's off, they can hear you. Um, you know, and and go ahead and make an assumption that they cannot hear your, you or your child over the mo the the roar of that motor and if it is a you know an older kid, a 16, 17, 18 year old, that is doing the lawn, or maybe doing someone else's lawn or getting paid.

Speaker 2:

They need to be free of distractions. You know this is not the time to be. You know multitasking because, once again, you never know when. You know some little kid from down the street is going to run over. You know the dog that you didn't know got loose is going to run by. You know, once again, it is a very dangerous vehicle with a motor and a blade, and so you shouldn't be on your phone with your music and mowing a lawn. You need to be paying attention to the task at hand.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for tuning in to the Medlink Health Connections podcast. We hope you found today's episode informative and inspiring. If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe, rate and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. Remember the information shared in this podcast is for educational purposes only and should not replace professional medical advice. Always consult with your healthcare provider for any medical advice. Always consult with your healthcare provider for any medical concerns. Stay connected with us on social media and visit our website at medlinkgaorg for more resources and updates. Until next time, stay healthy and take care.