By MADDY VITALE
Following a scary e-bike accident involving his son, Ocean City Councilman Tony Polcini is calling for stricter enforcement of helmet laws.
On Nov. 17, Polcini’s son, JD, who is a sophomore at Ocean City High School, was riding his e-bike to school, when he wiped out going around a sharp turn near the Post Office at Ninth Street and Ocean Avenue.
“The impact punctured his liver. He suffered a concussion, too,” Polcini said in an interview Saturday. “My son wiped out. The road was wet.”
JD, who is 15, was not wearing a helmet.
“He left for school in the morning and I said, ‘Get the helmet on.’ And when he got to the bike path, closer to school, he took it off,” Polcini explained.
JD later told his father he didn’t want to look foolish with the helmet on.
“He was helicoptered to Cooper Pediatric Trauma Center because of a significant laceration to his liver,” Polcini said. “I feel like because it happened to my son, it hits closer to home that we aren’t enforcing the helmet laws enough. There should some more enforcement.”
JD spent four days in the hospital. He is not allowed to ride his e-bike for a month while he recuperates. And even then, Polcini said, JD’s friends are taking bets that the e-bike may be sold.
But at that, Polcini said his son bought the bike with his own money and has been responsible with riding it, until now.
“The e-bikes can be great. They are convenient. But they go up to 30 miles an hour and riders need to be educated and more responsible about them and the importance of wearing a helmet,” Polcini said.
Problems ranging from speeding e-bikes to riders monopolizing the Boardwalk and not obeying traffic laws throughout the city, have kept the motorized bikes at the forefront of discussion.
The community’s concerns over the past two years prompted city officials and the police department to take a look at stricter enforcement of laws that apply to e-bikes.
At one point, Mayor Jay Gillian sought to ban e-bikes on the Boardwalk after complaints about riders whizzing up and down the boards.
But residents spoke out during Council meetings, urging the mayor and the city to reconsider, saying that e-bikes are important for some riders, especially senior citizens. The city listened to the residents and decided that the focus would be on enforcement of traffic and helmet safety laws.
Polcini brought up JD’s accident at the Nov. 22 City Council meeting to emphasize that he wants a strong focus on helmet safety.
“As a parent sitting at this Council table, I really think we need to look at this again, especially about helmets,” he said at the meeting.
“It’s a motorized bike. It’s not a bicycle. It goes 30 miles an hour or more,” Polcini said of e-bikes.
He noted that he wants to use his position as a councilman to help see to it that there is more enforcement of helmet laws.
“As a father, it really opens my eyes a little more,” he said of his son’s accident. “This is a serious thing.”
The mayor said that there needs to be strict enforcement of traffic safety and helmet laws, and there has been.
Gillian also noted that the issue is community wide.
“I know the new police chief (Bill Campbell) and his team are doing more and more and I think the schools are doing more and more,” Gillian said of the enforcement of safety involving e-bikes.
Polcini said he is hopeful that more e-bike riders will wear their helmets and that the enforcement continues to improve.
“We went through a trauma. I’m just hoping it will be a lesson and make other kids safer,” he said. “We have a lot to be thankful for through this Thanksgiving. It could have been worse. But if we don’t clamp down a little bit, there will be more tragedies. I want people to be smart and educated about e-bikes and how important it is to wear your helmet.”
