Keep kids safe on ATVs

It’s time to get serious about trying to protect youthful ATV riders.

Just this past week the Frontiersman reported three accidents involving four-wheelers. In one instance, an ATV driver described as “a child” collided with a car. Thankfully, the child sustained injuries that were listed as mild. In another, a 17-year-old girl riding on a side street left the roadway and hit several trees. She was hospitalized. The third incident, on Thursday afternoon, was far more tragic. That rollover on the trail along Lucille Street killed the 17-year-old ATV operator and injured her 17-year-old passenger. Neither teen was wearing a helmet.

We see two persistent problems with young ATV riders in the Valley — they are inadequately prepared to ride the high-powered machines beneath them, and they don’t wear proper safety gear.

In many states, riders under 16 must wear a helmet. In Minnesota, ATV riders (passengers and operators) under 18 riding on public land must wear a helmet at all times.

While the riders involved in the fatal accident were both 17, we know that cultivating good safety habits early is more likely to result in continued safety habits.

Too many young Alaskans have died or been seriously injured in accidents involving ATVs, dirt bikes and other motorized recreational equipment. It’s time for the Legislature to look at adopting a law that requires Alaska youths wear helmets.

ATV accidents involving young people are a perennial problem. According to statistics from the Alaska Trauma Registry, from 2000-2004, injury rates in Alaska for children ages 5-8 for sledding (23 incidents) and ATVs (27) were about the same per 100,000 people. But for ages 9-14, the ATV injury rate per 100,000 people jumped to 138 — higher than bicycling (127), and it leaps to 245 per 100,000 for ages 15-24.

Like other useful pieces of equipment, ATVs often have dual roles for fun and function. They provide youths too young to legally operate a car a motorized mode of travel. Children see a four-wheeler as a ticket to freedom and adventure. Adults need to see it for what it is — a tool that can be deadly in careless or childish hands.

Most ATVs have labels warning they are not to be driven by anyone under 16. We’ve seen youngsters barely able to see above the handlebars navigating the machines. Nationwide, children younger than 16 account for roughly one third of all ATV-related deaths and injuries, according to information posted by the Alaska Brain Injury Network Inc.

“The ATV Driver’s Guide” put out by the Alaska Department of Public Safety reports that over a two-year period, at least 20 deaths and 583 injuries, including six persons permanently disabled with neurological injuries, were associated with ATVs in Alaska. Half of the fatalities were a result of direct impact to the head.

We should all be putting our heads together to come up with a solution.

While children can be careful and prudent, too often both attributes are lost with a flick of the wrist as the throttle opens in an effort to impress friends or meet a challenge, or simply in a moment of panic. Without safety gear and/or proper training, the results can be deadly.

Adults and children alike need to treat motorized recreational vehicles with the respect they deserve. Everyone should be helmeted. Children and other new riders should be required to take a safety course or otherwise learn from a responsible, caring adult how to drive each specific vehicle with care, caution and respect. No one should be allowed to operate a vehicle too big or powerful for him or her to handle in a think-quick situation.

We urge one of our local legislators to prefile a bill that gives law enforcement the means to help parents keep kids safe by mandating ATV helmet use for Alaska youths.