CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A 14-year-old Myers Park High School freshman was killed when he fell in front of a truck while riding his bicycle Tuesday morning.
Andrew Wright was riding on the sidewalk and tried to swerve around a trash can when he apparently lost control of his bike and fell into busy Sharon Lane where he was hit by a truck.
Tuesday night, parents and children placed a small bike painted white at the spot where the accident happened.
Police, who have not filed any charges against the truck driver, said the boy was not wearing a helmet when he was hit.
Former County Commissioner Lloyd Scher helped write the mandatory helmet law for Mecklenburg County, and eventually, for the state after he was in an accident on his bike.
He still has the helmet he was wearing when he fell, striking his head on a rock.
"My doctors told me when they saw the rock, which was triangular, that had I not had a helmet on I would have been dead," said Scher.
Neighbor Claire Gregson, who helped place the bike at the memorial, said, "I'm not saying what happened could have been prevented if he had a helmet on, but helmets are important."
So important, said Scher, that he wants to change the existing law and require that helmets be bought when you buy a bicycle.
"We got to tell parents to get a helmet. It's going to save a kid's life," he said.
