FAD WATCH : Good Skates

When the skateboard first appeared on the scene a generation ago, it was for many elders a quirky and irksome unguided missile. Now, the kids who first turned adult heads with their meanderings through shopping malls watch anxiously as their own children dart through traffic.

This enduring symbol of carefree youth has been a target for regulation by a number of Southern California communities. Some common sense can preserve safety and good humor.

There is no question that carelessness on skateboards can have devastating results. Orange County, for example, has had three fatalities in a period of roughly a year, all incidents preventable not so much by ordinance as by the exercise of safety consciousness. Early this month, a 10-year-old boy in Anaheim paddled himself off a sidewalk and into the street, where he was struck and killed by a car. Two 19-year-olds died in separate accidents after being towed behind vehicles.

Even in the seeming invulnerability of youth, the head is one part of a young body that won’t necessarily rebound from a bad tumble. Skateboard riders who take their sport seriously--for example, the folks in the National Skateboarding Assn.--require helmets, elbow pads and knee pads for all competition, and support their use all the time. A word to the wise.

Communities restricting skateboarding ought to show that they are not just being cranky. They can work with skateboarders on safety education, and even set aside skateboard parks for kids and well-padded kids-at-heart.