Bay island students gifted free helmets from Queensland Police

Hundreds of primary school students on the Bay islands have been given free helmets as part of a bike safety push headed by Queensland Police.

HUNDREDS of Bay island students will be much safer on two wheels after they were gifted free helmets by Queensland Police.

Primary school students on Russell, Macleay and North Stradbroke Island were donated 500 bike helmets, worth $60 each, as part of the safety push.

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The giveaway was part of a wider bicycle safety education program that Bayside PCYC delivered to around 800 students across the Redlands.

Macleay Island State School student Luke Overton with sergeant Tina Bowen

The program followed a $23,000 road safety grant from the Department of Transport and Main Roads.

Sergeant Tina Bowen said the three islands were identified as the communities that would most benefit from the program.

“Through local police knowledge we knew that some communities on those islands were not even owning a helmet, let along wearing them,” she said.

Sgt Bowen said the response had been “phenomenal” and she had received feedback from the schools that students had continued to wear the helmets.

“Wearing a bicycle helmet is the law but more importantly, they do save lives if you stack it on a bike,” she said.

“Gone are the days where kids used to think helmets are daggy.”