Quiet roads are great places to play hockey

To the editor:

Re: 'Streets for driving, not playing hockey,' Letter, July 1.

After reading the letter indicating parents are negligent for allowing their children to do such a dangerous thing as playing hockey on the street, it strikes me there is some education needed on the game of road hockey.

A typical road hockey game is played on a quiet residential street. When a car comes by it has to stop because there are two red nets larger than pylons sitting smack dab in the middle of the road. At this point the players stop the game, move the nets and let the car go through.

Then the nets go back where they belong and the game continues.

The chances of getting hit by that car that is waiting for the nets to get moved: zero.

In my younger days, I probably took part in more than 1,000 road hockey games. Never once did any of the players come remotely close to getting hit by a car.

In fact, one could probably make a better argument that having the children walk to a playgound or school to play is a far less safe endeavour.

That walk would make them pedestrians. How many pedestrians do you hear about getting hit by a car every year in the GTA? How many road hockey players? Ever here of a child being abducted from a playground or school or while walking to or from one? Unfortunately, yes.

Ever here of a child getting abducted from a road hockey game on the street in front of their parents' homes? I think not.

Road hockey is organized by the children. They do a much better job than we adults could ever do. They pick fair teams from whoever shows up. Children of all different ages and abilities play in the same game. There are no referees, they don't need any.

The next time you are stopped by a hockey net take a look at the faces of the players and see if you can sort out who is winning and losing. They are having way too much fun to care.

We are fortunate to have intelligent and responsible police officers in this city and we entrust them with our safety. They have a law they can use to stop children from playing road hockey. Why do you suppose they choose not to enforce that law?

I think it is because they know a good thing when they see it.

Larry Fortune