ATV Accidents

We blog all too frequently about children who are hurt or killed in off-highway vehicles or ATVs.

Now the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is looking into the design of a handful of brands associated with more than 30 fatalities. The Yamaha Motor Company’s Rhino is one of those brands.

The Wall Street Journal named Yamaha as one the focus of the deaths, though the company would not confirm that. Yamaha does not agree with the WSJ’s fatality tally.

An off-road vehicle is different from an ATV in that they are larger and have two side-by-side seats and a protective roll cage, which is not required of ATVs.

Besides the Rhino, there is the Polaris’s Razor, Honda Big Red, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Mule and Arctic Cat’s Prowler. Read the rest »

This week a couple of teens riding an all-terrain vehicle in Baker County, smashed into a tree after losing control of the ATV on a dirt road.

They were both in serious condition; neither of them wore a helmet according to the Florida Highway Patrol. 17-year-old Michael Jewel of Sanderson was driving. The passenger was Thomas Harvey, 17, of Glen St. Mary.

Riders and passengers of ATVs frequently suffer spinal cord injuries as they dive over the handlebars.

Parents seem sharply divided on the issue of ATVs. Some believe their kids can handle the freedom; others ban them, or insist on matching a child to the machine with supervision. Others don’t believe 17-year-old boys can be taught anything.

ATV accidents killed at least 555 people in 2006 at least 100 children among them, according to government safety officials. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimates another 146,000 people were treated in emergency rooms for ATV-injuries that year, more than a quarter of them children.

In Florida, at least 71 kids under the age of 16 died from 1982 to 2002. More recent statistics are not complete. Florida riders under the age of 16 are required to wear a helmet and eye protection.

An ATV is a vehicle that travels on four low-pressure tires, with a seat and handlebars. It’s designed to handle mountain terrain, and other environments off-street.

There is no cage around the rider who sits and rides like a motorcycle. The speed can go up to 80 mph or higher depending on the engine. ATVs are associated with trespassing, land defacement, erosion and noise and dust pollution. Engines range from 49 cc to 1,000.

ATVs are supposed to carry a label from the manufacturer telling consumers that machines greater than 90 cc should not be attempted by riders under the age of 12. This is a recommendation only.

The industry says ATVs have never been shown to be an unsafe product, but there is little to keep a child safe during a rollover when they are thrown from the vehicle. Then there is the issue that many youngsters ride adult-size ATVs which are too big for them.

Dealers are not supposed to sell ATVs to parents who will allow children to ride them, but that is an unverifiable system.

A couple of years ago, national pediatrician and consumer groups called on the commission to ban the sale of adult size ATVs for children under 16 because the machines were too big and fast for the young drivers. The agency decided not to change its policy when its director of compliance, a former lawyer for the ATV industry said the system of voluntary compliance was working.

Many at the CPSC have quit in disgust when, facing a shrinking budget, they try to regulate industries that appear to be calling the shots. One woman in a poison prevention expert said “there is only so much that a few people there can do.”

Many inside say the prevailing attitude is that business can regulate itself. But we’ve all seen lately what happens when industries are in charge of regulating themselves. We hope these young men fully recover- our best to them and their families. #

Students at Bartram Trail High School in St. Johns County in north Florida are mourning a senior who was killed this week in a motocross track accident in Flagler County, Florida.

Bennet “Ben” Gordon Geiger Jr. was just 17 years old. He had been riding motocross for two years, experienced at jumping the motorcycle tracks. He was on a practice ride at the Pax Trax Motocross in Bunnell Tuesday when his motorcycle flipped on top of him after a jump.

He was wearing a helmet and had reportedly been on the motorcycle for at least an hour when the accident occurred.He eventually died at Flagler Hospital.An autopsy will be conducted.

First Coast News reports that the Bunnell Police Department reportedly had a hard time putting together the scene because Geiger’s bike, helmet and clothing were moved before they got there to investigate.

Geiger also helped the school maintain athletic fields. Ben was just a great kid, and a dedicated and involved student, says his principal.

There was a moment of silence for Geiger during the Friday night football game with Creekside High School.

“I think one of the main thing with students this age is because it’s so final,”the principal said.

Big John Scott who had Ben in his Bible study and in his high school class, said online that Ben was “Quite possibly the funniest kid I ever met. Your friends are just ruined today.”

Friends go on to say how much they will miss Ben and what an impact he had on their life.

“Riding dirtbikes must have been his biggest love, I remember him talking about it all the time. At least he died doing what he loved best. “Only the good die young,” says Nina Alvarez online.

Read the rest »

They look like small two-seater jeeps. The Yamaha Rhino are the latest fun vehicle blamed for serious injuries called by rollovers.

In March, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a voluntary recall of 2008 Rhino Side-by-Side vehicles because of a risk of brake failure that affects about 7,800 vehicles.  

But brakes are not their only problem.

In a rollover in the All Terrain Vehicle (ATV), victims are suffering devastating and debilitating injuries such as the loss of the lower limbs and serious head injuries.

Read the rest »