Commander's Corner

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DYESS AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  The Commander's Corner is a forum for the Dyess community to make suggestions or voice concerns about Dyess directly to Brig. Gen. Glen VanHerck, 7th Bomb Wing commander. Each week the Dyess Public Affairs office solicits questions via the official Dyess Facebook page, offering people an opportunity to ask questions and receive answers directly from the wing commander.

QUESTION

Kelly McGuire - Sir, in regard to the safety of our children I would like to bring to attention a situation that has been occurring since the start of school. Every morning on my way to the gate area, I travel up Delaware and each morning I am faced with worry for a several children. There are a few spouses who ride in with their children on bikes and while I commend them for keeping their kids fit I question the reason why these young kids need to be in the middle of the road. The younger ones have fallen several times in the road now and just this morning the youngest was riding down the middle of the road without a parent. This same child darted right out across the intersection from the gate to Delaware without stopping to look for cars. There has not been a crossing guard since the first two days and since this seems to be an ongoing problem with this group I am wondering the best course of action. I fear that because of the way these spouses are handling this situation that it is a matter of time before a child is severely injured and I would like to prevent that if possible. I do understand that bikes should be able to share the road using the bike lanes on the shoulder of the roads but in this case the bikes and being ridden in a group across the road.

Follow-up comment: Keith Deshaies - With respect, I think the best COA in that case is to raise awareness of the parents. Maybe offer some sort of bike safety course that teaches the basics of bicycle riding and safety guidelines and encompasses both the parents and children. A crossing guard can only work with the intersection, not the roads leading to it. -V/R
Brig. Gen. Glen VanHerck
Brig. Gen. Glen VanHerck		   RESPONSE

Kelly - Thanks for your question - the safety of our children is of the utmost importance and I'm glad you brought it up on this forum. I need the help of each and every Team Dyess member to share this message. As Keith suggests, raising the awareness among our parents and promoting safety by policing one another may be the best course of action. If you are consistently seeing the same group of parents and children behaving unsafely on their bikes, you should feel empowered to bring it to their attention. I would hope that they would be receptive to your concern for their child's well-being. And while the base rules do allow bicycle users to share the roadway with other vehicles, there is a reason we have sidewalks in base housing---I want them to use it! I have been told by our Wing Safety office that a number of our children are also not wearing helmets to and from school. Helmets are not an option, and I need our parents to stress to their young ones how important it is for them to be safe. I know some may think that by living in base housing, we live in a bubble where accidents don't happen. Let me tell you, they do, and all it takes is one mistake on the road to bring this important message home in the most tragic of ways. I would like to drive this message home before something like that occurs. Kelly, you also mentioned another important item; the school crossing guard on base. This position is filled on a volunteer basis, and the Wing Safety office has informed me that only one person has stepped up to the plate over the last year to help provide this service. One person isn't enough. I encourage you, your friends and neighbors on base to consider volunteering for this position. Our children's safety will only be as secure as the amount of effort we as a base community are willing to put into it.