Education keeps off-roading safe, fun

Out & About, by Howard Delo

In my introductory column, I said we would occasionally touch on the outdoor politics everyone likes to discuss here in the Valley. This matter of requiring a driver's license for the operation of an ATV or snowmobile was a hot button issue during the last legislative session, resulting in the repeal of the statute requiring a driver's license for operating an off-road vehicle.

I agree with the particulars of that repeal but not the theory. My dad took his life in his hands to introduce me to driving a car a long time ago. I later took driver's education in high school and did successfully get a driver's license. Requiring that kind of license to operate an ATV or snowmachine is ridiculous. It's like comparing apples and oranges -- they aren't the same thing.

However, I think the idea of requiring a separate, off-road vehicle license to operate an ATV or snowmobile has significant merit. I would add operating a powerboat to that category, too. The Anchorage paper ran an article a few weeks ago about the increasing trend in the number of accidents and injuries occurring on ATV's nationwide, and the resulting concern.

We have a radio scanner at home and occasionally listen when we hear sirens on the road. Several of the calls this past summer were ambulance runs to accidents involving kids and ATVs. We've heard the same thing with snowmobiles during the winter season, and they weren't all kids.

I'm not a fan of "Big Government," but I do believe in the power of education. In an ideal world, everyone who bought an ATV, snowmobile or boat would already have the training and experience necessary to properly and lawfully operate the vehicle. In the real world, anyone with enough money can buy any off-road vehicle and go operate it, as long as they can get the engine started. I have personally witnessed this with riverboats.

I own and operate an ATV, a snowmachine and five different types of boats. I've asked ATV and snowmachine dealers where I could get the training they all advertise is available. Nobody seems to know. I've taken boating safety courses, but nobody teaches about riverboating, probably the most common form of boating in Mat-Su. I've learned how to operate all these off-road vehicles through the school of hard knocks, luckily without injuring others or myself. Not everyone is that fortunate.

Driving a car or operating an off-road vehicle is a privilege, not a right. You've heard the phrase: "With every right, there comes a responsibility." That's true, but even more applicable for a privilege. If many operators of the infamous Jet Ski acted in a more responsible manner, the common practice of banning their use on many Valley lakes and in other places like Kachemak Bay, on the lower Kenai Peninsula, very likely would never have happened.

Unfortunately, the "nature of the beast" is that if you don't have to do it, you probably won't. If you don't have to learn the correct and responsible way to operate an off-road vehicle, you probably won't until, in some cases, it's too late. If you learn correctly to begin with, you won't have to relearn good habits while unlearning bad ones. Oh, I also believe that just because you're born a male doesn't mean you were automatically blessed with the instinctive knowledge for operating an off-road vehicle, either.

A program of licensing off-road vehicle operation would, necessarily, require a phase-in process, starting with the kids. Once the widespread availability of instruction developed (the private sector would quickly provide that service) moving toward requiring everyone to have this license type becomes a reality.

This idea won't stop all reckless off-road operation, but it should dramatically reduce the needless deaths and injuries commonly occurring now.