Tennessee: Stressing all-terrain vehicle safety
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Life Force’s air medical educator Johnny Cowart has spent a dozen years flying medical helicopters over Tennessee and Georgia, and he can’t shake the memories of all-terrain vehicle crash victims, particularly the young ones.
He still hasn’t forgotten the two sisters from Georgia — 12 and 6 years old — who, 10 years ago, lost control of the ATV they were riding and sped onto a road directly in front of a sport utility vehicle. The younger girl died at the scene, and the other after she was flown to the hospital, he said.
“It’s hard because it’s so preventable,” he said after a Tuesday media event on ATV safety coordinated by Safe & Sound, the injury prevention service at T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital. “You wouldn’t give your child the responsibility of driving a car, so why would you put them on a vehicle that goes basically as fast as a car?”
ATV DEATHS
In Tennessee, there were at least 322 reported ATV-related deaths between 1982 and 2006, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. In Georgia, there were at least 240 deaths. Reporting from 2003 through 2006 has not been completed, according to the commission.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission considers an ATV to be an off-road, motorized vehicle with three or four low-pressure tires, a straddle seat and handlebars.
SAFE RIDING TIPS
* Wear a helmet and other protective gear.
* Never ride on public roads.
* Never ride under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
* Ride an ATV that is age-appropriate.
* Ride at a safe speed.
* Take an ATV safety course: call 800-887-2887 or visit atvsafety.org.
Source: ATV Safety Institute
At the event, hospital officials and safety advocates said that no one under 16 should drive an ATV, even ones marketed as “child size,” and they warned against two riders on one vehicle.
“Children under the age of 16 do not have the physical or the cognitive ability to operate these big, heavy, bulky machines,” said Becky Campbell, program coordinator for Safe & Sound.
So far in 2008, four Chattanooga children have died on ATVs, and 26 have been admitted to T.C. Thompson with ATV-related injuries, Ms. Campbell said. Most recently, a 9-year-old boy died in June when his ATV hit a sport utility vehicle, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.
Local ATV dealers said that the vehicles, if used properly and responsibly with parental supervision, are no more dangerous than other recreational activities.
Anthony Sims, marketing director for Southern Honda Powersports, emphasized that the dealership’s salespeople stress the need for safety gear and age-appropriate ATV purchases.
“Obviously, we can’t supervise how people actually use those machines when they leave here, but we give every opportunity and encouragement to use them safely,” he said. “There’s a way to explore and to connect with your environment that ATVs and motorcycles and mountain bikes (provide.) All those things are dangerous at some level, but they can also routinely be used safely and responsibly, and they offer unique experiences.”
Ms. Campbell said an ATV’s high center of gravity, capacity for high speed — top speeds are about 50 mph, depending on the model — and the perception that the vehicles are toys make for a deadly combination.
Most injuries or deaths occur when ATVs — weighing between 150 and 600 pounds, depending on the type — roll over onto the rider, she said.
“Seldom can parents lift an ATV off a child,” she said.
Some of the most common ATV-related injuries are fractures and brain injuries, said Beth Coleman, executive director of the Chattanooga Area Brain Injury Association. Both injuries can have lifelong effects, she said.
“It’s Humpty Dumpty; you can’t put the pieces back together again,” she said.
Marisa Moyers, pediatric trauma coordinator at T.C. Thompson, collects trauma data on all those patients. She recalled the father who, after the death of his adolescent son from an ATV accident last year, vowed to spend the rest of his life telling people about the dangers of ATVs.
Ms. Moyers said her time spent bedside in the intensive care unit, talking with the child’s family for several days, was gut-wrenching.
“It breaks your heart. You want to tell them it’ll be OK and it’ll get better, but you can’t do that,” she said. “It’s real easy to say, ‘Everybody does it (rides ATVs); my child is not gonna get hurt,’ until you stand beside a parent whose child is laying in intensive care and the parents do not know if that child is going to survive.”
