ATV Florida Forum

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4 In Your Corner Continuing Coverage
ATV Safety Law

May 22, 2007 09:02 PM EDT

 
 
 
 
 
     After our investigation into All Terrain Vehicle safety standards, some of your elected officials are now re-examining Florida law.
     11-year-old Justine Huffer of North Port almost lost her leg after an ATV accident. Her dad, Tony Huffer wants tougher safety standards to help drive down incidents like his daughters. He tells me, "10 and 11-year-olds or younger are able to ride ATVs of just about any size and it's just a very dangerous situation."
     Rachel Weintraub of the Consumer Federation of America tells me in 2005 children under 16 suffered more than 40,000 serious injuries.She says "the sad fact is each and every year more and more families have to deal with these kinds of losses, these incredibly emotional times and devastating occurences that are also very expensive." To top it off, Weintraub tells me Florida has some of the weakest safety standards in the country.
      In Florida, anyone of any age can ride an ATV and you don't need a license. So I went straight to our state senators and representatives to find out why. First stop, Trudi Williams. She tells me, "parents need to bare some of that responsibility. Why would you buy your kids an ATV if you don't think they're old enough to use them responsibly." Senator Dave Aronberg tells me, "it's a tragedy when you hear of loss of life of kids who probably see this as a toy."
     I shared some statistics with Williams and Aronberg. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, in 2005, 120 kids under 16 died from an ATV-related accident. Sharing numbers like that convinced our lawmakers to take another look at our state laws. Williams tells me she "will call the powers that be in Tallahassee and find out if anyone has tried to do any legislation on that." Williams wants to look into why a license isn't required and Aronberg wants to look into a possible age requirement. He tells me he "will look into it and talk to the stakeholders involved and try to come up with something that's fair, that's not big brother but recognizes that there is a safety problem here."
     Florida law may not have an age restriction to ride an ATV but law does require children under 16 be supervised by an adult when riding an ATV on public land. Starting July 1st of next year, kids under 16 will have to complete a safety course in order to ride an ATV.

MARISA MENDELSON
mmendelson@fox4now.com


It appears as though marisa isnt AGAINST our sport, she is just for safety so lets try not to change her mind.  ;D  She may be able to get ATVs some more air time.



I dont know how much truth there is to the law thats going to take place july 2008 but if its true then im glad. Hopefully if kids are required to take these courses the number of injuries will go down and the state will relise that all those injuries and deaths werent just the cause of the atv, but instead it was lack of training that caused the accidents. Only time will tell.

"First stop, Trudi Williams. She tells me, "parents need to bare some of that responsibility."

During these types of stories,  No one ever asked the parents why they let thier kids ride an atv to big for them. its nice to see someone mentioned that

I'll tell you what kind of laws they need to enact, something that holds the parents or adults supervising this asinine behavior of 3 kids on a 250EX going wide open across a field they have never ridden before in their lives with no helmets on responsible for their lack of judgment on the issue. How about instead of trying to protect us from ourselves, you make the people who are suppose to be protecting their own children responsible for their stupidity?

This is a fine and dandy Idea, however, let's talk reality now. I typically buy a bike every year and they never ever once asked who it was for, they just assumed it was for me. What if I went into my local shop and purchased a bike, let say a suzuki vinson for example but I bought it for my 12 year old brother? or if I had a son my 10 year old son. How are they really going to regulate this?

I love the praise "parents need to bare some of that responsibility" it is so true and everything we hear involving kids. The sad fact is the "PARENTS" really don't want to take the responsibility. Pretty soon our society is going to wake up to the fact "PARENTS" just want the fun of the kids with no RESPONSIBILITY!!!!