Last week, just down the street from where I work, a child on a bike crossing a 6 lane highway through a red light got hit by three cars and dragged along the road because he had no lights, no reflectors and crossed an intersection through a red light into oncomming traffic. I've been mulling over that tragedy on my ride so the experience I had on my commute home was that much more meaningful.

I was going through a dark section of road on a fairly busy side street when in the lights of the cars I could see 3 young people, preteens, riding the wrong way down the street, completely devoid of reflector, light or helmet. As I went past, I called out to them as nicely as possible, "Hey, you guys gotta get some lights!". I continued down the street, when a quick shadow passed in front of me - it was one of the kids, a boy, maybe 11 or 12 years old, on a tiny beat up bmx bike, fixed gear, no brakes. I saw him look back at me as he past and assumed he was just asserting his coolness to his friends by smoking the old head with two headlights, taillight, reflective ansi vest, reflective panniers, stickers, etc... To my horror, he proceded instead to wail past me and turn onto a very dangerous, busy road that has no shoulder and blind corners. I guess whatever maternal instinct I have surfaced, because I flipped it into high gear and started to chase him down. I decided that I was not going to let this kid go through what I call, -the log flume- by himself. Its a busy street with no shoulder that twists and turns before finally ascending this steep narrow train bridge. On the other side, a screaming downhill screeches to a halt just before a 6 lane highway. I caught up to him and rode the log flume about 2 feet behind him and slightly to the left to sheild him from traffic, illuminate him from behind, as well as light his path. Once he realized I was on his wheel, he started to gun it. After the log flume, he found a chance to get to the other side of the road (the wrong side) and I called out to him across rush-hour traffic, "Hey, you are going to get yourself killed! I'm following you so you don't get hit, why don't you come back and ride in my lights? I'll ride with you to your house!"

Surprisingly, he said "okay". I honestly think he was a little afraid of the whole situation. I put my arm out to slow down traffic and he crossed back over. We rode alot slower since I identified that I wasn't some crazy nutjob chasing him down on my bike. Once we turned into his residential neighborhood, I introduced myself, told him that I rode my bike everywhere too. We talked for a bit, and I gently admonished him for not having lights, reflectors and a helmet. Once we arrived at his (huge) house, I asked him to hang on, which I detached my 1-watt planet bike LED headlight. I secured it to his bike and showed him the blinking and steady modes. He seem genuinely surprised that I would give up my headlight but thanked me. I reminded him about the helmet and reflective elements, said goodnight, and got on my way home. I don't know if I saved his life, but I did get someone's baby home safely and I feel darn good about that.

I have decided that I would like to carry spare blinkies around to hand out; there are far too many invisible kids on bicycles around here.