That is your Florida ATV Association at work folks.
I actually had a long interview with the reporter, and I think I managed to shift her story from being ATV's are dangerous, to the lack of managed legal riding areas is the real danger/story.
It seems like a fairly fair article.
If you get a chance, please write to Amy and thank her for at least doing a balanced story.
ATV fatalities on the rise
By AMY SOWDER
asowder@news-press.com Originally posted on June 29, 2007
Boys will be boys, the saying goes.
But sometimes, that ends in more than scraped knees and elbow bruises.
When two LaBelle boys smashed into a pickup while riding an all-terrain vehicle on Sunday and were flown to Lee Memorial Hospital for critical injuries, it underscored the need for more ATV safety rules and more places to ride legally in Southwest Florida.
There were 721 ATVs involved in crashes in Florida in 2005, and 24 of those resulted in fatalities, according to the latest statistics from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. In recent years, Florida’s fatalities have risen. The state has had 110 reported ATV-related deaths between 2002 and 2005, compared with 185 deaths between 1982 and 2001.
By Thursday, Ryan M. Hellard, 12, and Juan Marquez, 9, were discharged, said hospital spokeswoman Karen Krieger. Their parents declined to speak about it.
But those children might have been unscathed if a stricter law had been in place - and followed.
The Legislature decided this past session to start requiring riders under 16 to be supervised by an adult and to complete a safety course. Enforcement can begin July 1, 2008.
The children can be cited with a $100 fine and have riding privileges revoked. If there’s a repeat offense, the fine could rise to $500.
Riding ATVs can be dangerous, enthusiasts said, but moreso because there aren’t enough places to ride legally.
“There isn’t any legal public place to ride south of Interstate 4,” said Paul Stanton, president of the Florida ATV Association. “If you don’t have anywhere for kids to ride, then you can make all the riding laws you want, but it will do no good unless they have public lands.”
Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Tim Burtcher said the two boys were trying to cross the road to a friend’s house from an orange grove, private property on which they were trespassing. The accident happened on Fort Denaud Road, just north of State Road 80 in northern Hendry County.
The pickup driver has been charged with not wearing his glasses, and the boys could face charges for violating right-of-way.
“It came across to us as a fatality,” said Burtcher, lead investigator. “Thank God it wasn’t.”
Between July 2002 and December 2005, there were 5,311 off-highway vehicles titled in Lee County, 3,375 in Collier County and 1,701 in Charlotte County, according to the Florida Division of Forestry. There are 170,000 ATVs registered in the state, Stanton said.
Burtcher said he sees an incident or violation involving an ATV about once a week during patrols.
There have been 2,178 ATV-related deaths of children - 30 percent of all ATV-related deaths - in the nation between 1982 and 2005, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
IN FLORIDA
Chuck Harubin, 57, of Cape Coral, has a home in West Virginia where he keeps his six ATVs: one each for him and his wife and four for his five grandchildren.
He’s been riding for 20 years and also is a police dispatcher. Calls about ATV accidents constantly come in, Harubin said.
“You always have mishaps,” Harubin said. “And as a kid, you think you’re bulletproof. I think (the law) is a great idea.”
Harubin’s grandchildren haven’t taken safety courses, but his adult children have.
But the off-road vehicle enthusiast isn’t apt to bring ATVs to Southwest Florida because there aren’t public places to legally ride them.
Several trails along Old Burnt Store Road are popular, but not allowed, he said.
Local places to legally ride are disappearing so drastically, Nancy Casey might sell her two Kawasaki four-wheelers. Casey, a mother of one and and aunt to 12 nieces and nephews, used to go to Burnt Store Road, but stopped when she learned she could get arrested.
The only places left are her sister’s private property in Lehigh Acres and a friend’s Immokalee property, which is too far of a drive, the Cape Coral resident said.
“I bought the four-wheelers to do something fun and wholesome with the kids,” Casey said. “But now I’m thinking of selling because there’s no place to ride. They’re just sitting in the garage collecting dust.”
The closest public place for Southwest Florida ATV enthusiasts is the Ocala National Forest, where several trails are designated for that purpose, Stanton said.
The Apalachicola National Forest and the Osceola National Forest are other available areas, in addition to the state-run Croom Motorcycle Area in Brooksville.
In January, the Lee County Commission looked at installing a 300-acre, $1 million park for all-terrain vehicles.
But officials do not have a site designated for off-road vehicles, although they’ve inquired, said John Yarbrough, county Parks and Recreation director.
Gerry LaCavera of the Florida Division of Forestry, said officials have made proposals.
“We’ve proposed various areas in Picayune Strand State Forest for off-road riding, but it just gets passed around to supervising agencies,” LaCavera said.
ELSEWHERE
Laws aimed at protecting ATV riders have been spreading across the country in recent years amid rising number of deaths.
South Carolina is one of only five states with no law governing operation of ATVs. Others are Alabama, Hawaii, Louisiana and Mississippi. Legislation is pending in Louisiana.
Two years ago, North Carolina adopted one of the most comprehensive ATV laws in the nation. It prohibits anyone under 8 from riding an ATV and requires all drivers to wear eye protection and a helmet.
Laws, however, haven’t eliminated ATV mishaps.
In Kentucky, which has one of the highest ATV death rates in the country, 17 people have been killed so far this year, said Lt. Phil Crumpton of the Kentucky State Police. That’s nearly as many as the 21 killed in all of last year, despite a new law that expanded the requirement riders under 16 wear helmets to include riders on private property, he said.
In Fort Myers, Jay Anderson, founder of a traffic crash prevention program, Stay Alive Just Drive, said enforcement will be key. He has grandchildren with four-wheelers, but they only ride when parents are watching and they use helmets.
“Even with the law in place, that doesn’t mean people are going to listen to it,”
Anderson said.
