Dawn Blean still shudders when she remembers her 3-year-old son's close encounter with a truck as he rode in a bicycle seat behind her.
Ms. Blean heard the truck approach, then felt something hit her in the back, causing her to crash the bike in a ditch.
Both she and her son had been hit by a side-rearview mirror on the passing truck.
Neither of them was badly hurt. But the bicycle helmet her son Thomas wore was cracked like an egg.
Had he not been wearing it, he most certainly would have been seriously hurt and maybe killed.
The incident took place in Illinois, but Harford County bicycle safety advocates such as James Piccione note that it just as easily could have happened here.
As vice president of the Fountain Green Elementary School Parent Teacher Association, Mr. Piccione has launched a program to sell bike helmets at a steep discount to parents with children at the Harford County school.
Unlike other sales programs the PTA sponsors, bicycle helmet sales at Fountain Green do not raise funds for the school or the PTA.
"We didn't want this to turn into another fund-raiser," Mr. Piccione said. "We have a lot of bike riders at the school and we are hoping to give the kids an opportunity to wear helmets. If we kept the price too high, parents wouldn't buy them."
The helmets cost $18.90 each, including tax, and are available locally only to Fountain Green Elementary School students. They are made by Sportech of San Diego, and are marketed by Ride Safe Inc., a company that sells them directly to schools nationwide.
Available in three sizes and several colors, the helmets carry approval logos from the American National Standards Institute, and the Snell Memorial Foundation. Both organizations publish safety standards for bicycle helmets in the United States.
Mr. Piccione said the same helmet would sell in stores for about $35 to $50.
"Nineteen dollars for a bicycle helmet is pretty low, since the average price of a helmet is usually around $30," said Andrew Russo, manager of the Bicycle Authority, an Abingdon store that sells bikes and accessories.
"I guess it means a loss of business for us, but it's another way to get kids to wear helmets, and that's good."
Virginia Brooke, owner of Bike Line of Bel Air, another retail bicycle store, said she supports helmet programs like the one the Fountain Green PTA has started.
