NEWS STORY: JUNE 2007

This page was published as a news story on the date shown. The information in it may have been updated on other pages since then. Please use the navigation links, the search facility, or site-map to check.

Northwards in the news

Girls get the bike facts first

Girls at North Manchester High School
Girls at North Manchester High School in Moston get the message!

Did you know. . . there are no areas in the whole of Manchester where you can legally ride an off-road bike? This is one of the facts that school girls are learning this summer in a hard-hitting project called 'Too Young to Die'.

Our youth strategy officer, Ian Gillett, is going into local classrooms with Fire Safety Officer, Simon Whittaker, to tell our kids about the dangers of these bothersome bikes. The sessions have started at North Manchester High School for Girls in Moston.

Ian said, "Off-road bikes are the awful quads, scooters and mini-motos that you can hear a mile away, tearing up and down our streets. The project is all about letting young people know what happens when things go wrong with them."

We decided to pilot the scheme at the girls' school because we're not daft enough to think that girls aren't involved. Many of them own or ride off-road bikes and the dangers are just as real for them."

The pupils from three secondary schools in the area will be taking part in the sessions which include group discussions, real-life film footage, fact files and interactive workshops.

One of the girls from the school said, "The man in the film who lost his son in the road crash was well upsetting. Even though I don't ride them, I know people who do. It's just awful.

Community Fire Safety Officer, Simon Whittaker is an expert on the dangers of off-road bikes. He says, "Just don't ride them. I've seen too many horrific incidents to know. I have colleagues who still have nightmares about some of the things they've seen. The dangers are very real."

Did you know?
  • the off-road motorised bikes are often called 'mini-motos', 'go-ped' scooters, quad bikes and trials bikes
  • in the past year there have been over 22,000 complaints about off-road bikes in Greater Manchester
  • over 1000 of these bikes have been seized by the police in the last year in Greater Manchester
  • anyone can own these bikes - but it's illegal to ride one unless it's registered, taxed, and you wear a safety helmet.
  • until last month, anyone could buy mini-quads off the shelves at a large local supermarket. Our wardens and the fire service spoke to the store managers and they've been taken off sale permanently

The nearest legal off-road bike site is Back Cowm Quarry in Rochdale.
See www.cowmleisure.com

print print this page