Published: October 02, 2007 11:50 pm            

Families should be concerned about kids’ safety on ATVs

On its Web site, Concerned Families for ATV Safety has published a map showing where children have been killed while riding all-terrain vehicles. Orange made that map this month when 13-year-old Forest “Eddie” Ray died after wrecking his “four-wheeler.”

We’re concerned more Orange County children could lose their lives in the same way.

ATVs are three- or four-wheeled motorized vehicles used for off-road riding and have gained enormous popularity in the last decade. Despite their intended off-road use, in just about every neighborhood outside the city limits (and some inside) you can see children operating ATVs on public roads without adult supervision and without protective gear.

Nationwide, ATVs seriously injure more than 40,000 children under age 16 every year. More than 120 children died in off-road vehicle accidents in 2005, compared to 64 a decade earlier. Over the past decade, the number of children killed in off-road vehicle accidents increased by 88 percent, according to a Consumer Product Safety Commission report. In that decade, more than 1,200 children were killed in ATV accidents.

According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, statistics show an inordinate number of injuries and deaths resulting from the use of ATVs. The academy suggests a minimum age of 16 for operating an ATV on or off the road. “Children under the age of 12 generally possess neither the body size and strength, nor the motor skills and coordination necessary for the safe handling of an ATV. Children under age 16 generally have not yet developed the perceptual abilities or the judgment required for the safe use of highly powered vehicles,” the academy reports.

Orange County Commissioners Court voted recently to give constables from Precincts 1, 2 and 3 $500 from the fuel contingency fund for extra patrols to curb illegal usage of ATVs on county roads. ATVs are unregistered vehicles and will be towed and the drivers ticketed if caught being driven on public roadways, the sheriff’s office insists. It’s a Class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $500 fine.

Obviously more needs to be done.

“The sheriff’s office will continue the stance of zero tolerance, and this incident helps give the reason why — because they (ATVs) are so dangerous,” Chief Deputy Mike Marion of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said following the recent death of an adult who was killed while riding his ATV on a public roadway.

But, it’s not just law enforcement’s responsibility. Zero tolerance should be exercised by parents — who should also police themselves about driving ATVs on public roads.

For more about Concerned Families for ATV Safety, visit www.atvsafetynet.org/index.html.

        

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