Children and ATVs

Children are involved in over 45,000 ATV accidents every year. Amazingly, 95% of children be- tween the ages of 12 and 15 who are injured on ATVs (and 65% of younger children) are injured or killed while riding a full-size ATV intended for an adult. These full- size machines are dangerous for children because they are too big and powerful for kids to control.

Alarmed by the number of injuries and deaths suffered by child ATV riders and passengers, neurologists who conducted a study of ATV accidents involving children issued a call for a number of common-sense guidelines, including banning children younger than 16 from riding ATVs and requiring all ATV riders to wear a helmet. Such common sense would reduce the profits of ATV manufacturers, who oppose any such regulation and continue to market ever more powerful ATVs to children.

Regulations or not, if parents allow their children to ride ATVs, they should insist that their children safely ride ATVs of an appropriate size while wearing a helmet. This is not a cure-all but should help reduce what is becoming an epidemic of ATV-related injuries.