With bike-riding kids cruising past tiny stone cottages on miniature streets, Safety Town looks like a playground.
But it’s really an outdoor classroom, where the fun is designed to teach some serious lessons.
About 1,300 children a year practice bicycle safety at Safety Town’s traffic lights, stop signs and railroad crossing, escape from the second-floor of small house rapidly filling with non-toxic smoke and call the 911 emergency system from a downsized phone booth, according to Romeoville Police Department social worker Dale Keith.
Other programs include animal safety, stranger-danger, weather safety, home-alone and playground safety as well as DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) and CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) classes.
“If there’s a key to Safety Town, it’s called experiential learning,” Keith said.
The town includes railroad tracks with flashing lights, an antique caboose parked off to the side and a replica of the original village train station. The station, with its rows of wooden benches, is a good spot for watching safety videos or holding group discussions.
At a recent visit, summer day-campers from the Romeoville Recreation Department discussed escape routes for stranger-danger with Romeoville Police Officer Ken Kroll.
Ways of avoiding a dangerous encounters range from a low-key “no, thank you” to a scream, Kroll said.
“Can you guys scream?” he asked.
“Yeah!” shouted the campers in multi-decibel response.
Before handing out an assortment of two-wheelers, Keith ran through an equipment checklist, stressing the need for good brakes, a sturdy seat, firm handlebar grips, reflectors and well-filled tires.
But the safe bike needs a careful rider, a fact graphically illustrated by Andy Delgado and Brad Doxsie, both 11.
Racing down Safety Avenue, the boys left a trail of skid marks when they tried to stop on command. “If the boys had been in an intersection, they would have been road kill,” Keith pointed out.
After practicing control by weaving in and out of an obstacle course of orange plastic cones, participants got acquainted with traffic laws.
Police officers directed traffic as the youngsters rode through the streets of Safety Town, encountering stop signs, yield signs and railroad crossing signals.
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