[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 143 (Wednesday, November 2, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H9477]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
PUSHING FOR SAFER CYCLING CONDITIONS IN MEMORY OF JEANNE MENARD
(Mr. INGLIS of South Carolina asked and was given permission to
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. INGLIS of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, the bicycling community in
Greenville, South Carolina, and my own office had a tragic loss this
week. Jeanne Menard was a bicyclist and an enthusiast in Greenville who
was struck and killed by a car. Maybe it was the fact that the sun was
low in the sky, maybe it was a dirty windshield, maybe it was
inattention, maybe it was all of those things. In any event, somebody
who had given her time very recently to distributing helmets to school
children in one of our parks was killed in our town.
As a society, we want to promote a healthier lifestyle. We want
people to ride bikes in order to relieve congestion on our streets, in
order to make them healthier and just to have some fun.
The problem is that we are not all attentive to those bikes. In South
Carolina, there were 21 bicyclists killed in 2004; so far this year,
10. Nationwide, 600 bicyclists have been killed yearly in crashes with
automobiles.
I applaud groups like the League of American Bicyclists, the Palmetto
Cycling Coalition, the Spartanburg Freewheelers and the Greenville
Spinners, of which Jeanne Menard was a part, in their efforts to
promote bike safety; and I hope that all of us will take the
opportunity to spread the word in our own districts.
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