They should really take a long hard look at banning ATV's and motorcycles. They seem very dangerous.
Does anyone want to start a group to BAN ATV's? We could have meetings with refreshments and what not.
Anyone?
Considering the death toll in Florida is nearly 3x for boats & PWC at this time, I want to see those banned first.
I haven't seen all the facts on the article, but shouldn't he be suing the helmet maker? I mean, surely the helmet should have prevented such major trauma to the head.
This is a very easy conclusion to make based on emotions and other factors that don't really matter, but in the end it all boils down to luck IMO. For a child without a fully developed skull, it is a no brainer, but for a full grown adult it should be a choice. Lord knows I have bounced on my thick head many times with only minor brain damage.
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ATV rollover kills Houston man
ALASKA DIGEST
Published: August 31, 2007
Last Modified: August 31, 2007 at 02:08 AM
HOUSTON -- A 21-year-old Houston man died Wednesday night when his all-terrain vehicle rolled over and threw him on a trail adjacent to the Parks Highway, according to Houston police.
Joshua Scott Cope was unresponsive when police arrived, said officer Jason Holmgren. Medics pronounced Cope dead at 10:45 p.m., according to a written police statement.
Cope and a friend were just out for a ride, Houston Police Capt. John Rhyshek said.
Cope's friend was out of ahead of him when Cope's Kawasaki ATV flipped, according to Holmgren. The friend saw a flash of lights from Cope's headlights as the ATV rolled, Holmgren said.
"He turned over his shoulder and saw that there was an accident," Holmgren said, but "didn't really see what happened."
Rhyshek said that evidence at the scene seemed to indicate Cope lost control going down an embankment into a patch of rocks. The ATV flipped into the bushes, leaving Cope to land in the rocks.
Although Cope was wearing a helmet, the state medical examiner who responded told police the cause of death was likely blunt force trauma to the head, Rhyshek said.
-- Anchorage Daily News
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Boy killed after ATV he was driving rolls
Dies in father's arms on farm south of city
Wed Sep 5 2007
By Gabrielle Giroday and Joe Paraskevas
submitted photo
Graham Siemens died after the ATV he was driving hit a patch of uneven ground and rolled.
An eight-year-old boy died in his father's arms Sunday after the all-terrain vehicle he was driving rolled over three times on a farm south of Winnipeg, RCMP said Tuesday.
Graham Siemens was at the controls of an ATV in the Rural Municipality of Morris, about 65 kilometres south of Winnipeg, police said.
Another family member and a friend were driving two other ATVs at the same time. Tuesday, the boy's father said the child was a devout Christian who had a strong faith and a love of God.
Although he said his family was devastated by the boy's death, Wes Siemens said he supported his child's use of ATVs.
"He was a very, very huge part of our family... Graham did have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Every evening, you could hear it in his prayer, talking with Jesus," said Siemens.
"You can tell yourself not be sad for him because he is in a better place... it would be worse if we didn't have the assurance of (God's) salvation.
"If there's one message you can get out there, it's that everybody needs to be sure of where their soul is going when they're dead."
The child's ATV is believed to have hit uneven ground and rolled over, said RCMP Sgt. Davy Lee, commander of the RCMP's Morris detachment.
The boy was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.
His father said that, while viewing the accident was difficult, he was glad he believed his son was in heaven. ATVs for children should not be prohibited, he said.
"I wish I could do some things differently... well, we chose to allow it," said Siemens, who said Graham was one of four children.
"I do know that (the children) enjoyed (ATVs) immensely, and to throw out a blanket statement that four wheelers and dirt bikes are terrible things, I would be very disappointed with that."
The boy was among family when he died, Siemens said.
"I saw him at the scene, I saw him on the ground, I saw him when his soul went out of his body," he said. "It was a terrible thing, I have an unbelievable pain for having lost my son." RCMP were called to the scene and transported the boy to Morris Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
"People in the community are devastated by this," said Lee. "He was a young fellow. It's been devastating for the family," Lee added, "and it certainly has impacted this community."
The incident provoked an angry reaction from Mike Waite, executive director of Safety Services Manitoba, a private, not-for-profit organization that looks into road and occupational safety and training issues.
Waite said two years ago, Safety Services was part of a group that included police and licensing stakeholders that submitted a brief to the provincial government.
They asked the government to establish tougher standards around the licensing and training of drivers of off-road vehicles such as ATVs and snowmobiles, and the enforcement of any new legislation.
"It has not yet been acted upon," Waite said of his group's confidential brief.
Currently, anyone 14 years old and under can ride an ATV in the province, as long as there is supervision and the driver remains on private property, Waite said.
As soon as a driver reaches a road, he or she requires a motor vehicle driver's licence to continue.
Rules governing ATV use vary from province to province. Canada has the highest per capita use of ATVs in the world, according to 2004 data from the Canada Safety Council, a national not-for-profit safety organization. About 2.5 million Canadians ride ATVs and about 850,000 own one.
"A lot of people lose sight of the fact that this is a dangerous vehicle," Waite said. "It shouldn't be in the hands of children. They don't understand the risks."
gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca joe.paraskevas@freepress.mb.ca --
ATV accident leaves two dead last night
11:13 a.m.
August 27, 2007
GEORGIA Police are investigating a fatal ATV accident, in which both passengers were killed, that occurred last night on Sand Hill Road.
Twenty-two year old Jared Germain, of Essex, was driving the ATV without a helmet; his passenger, 24 year old Lee Matot, of Fairfax, was wearing a helmet. Both men died as a result of colliding with trees, police said.
Police responded to the scene of the one-vehicle accident just after 10 p.m. where they found the ATV smashed up in the culvert off the north side of the road where Germain was pronounced dead at the scene. Matot was transported to Northwest Medical Center and was pronounced dead along the way.
Police are investigating the accident for factors including speed and alcohol, they said.
Anyone with information re: this incident is asked to contact the Vermont State Police, St. Albans Barracks at 524-5993.
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Jessup ATV wreck hurts Delaware County boy, 9
BY DAVID FALCHEK
STAFF WRITER
09/03/2007
A 9-year-old boy visiting Northeastern Pennsylvania with his family to ride all-terrain vehicles suffered head injuries after being thrown from an ATV on Sunday.
The boy was admitted to Community Medical Center and required more than 100 stitches to his head.
The youth was riding in a former coal-mining area off Sunnyside Drive, said Jessup police Officer Paul Nardozzi.
About 12:30 p.m., the boy was driving the ATV as it hit a hole in the road that bounced him off the vehicle, Officer Nardozzi said. Although the boy was wearing a helmet, it was not fastened and flew off. The boy suffered several cuts and bruises, including a deep laceration to the back of his head, but was conscious, Officer Nardozzi said.
His parents were on hand. Because of the boy's age, police declined to release his name.
Under state law, only those 16 or older may operate an ATV.
The Jessup site, with winding dirt roads and rolling hills, has become so famous as an illicit ATV park that the boy's family traveled from the Philadelphia suburb of Wallingford, Delaware County, to buzz around the trails with scores of other enthusiasts.
As ATVs have become more common as recreational toys, Northeastern Pennsylvania - with vast tracts of abandoned coal lands and wooded acreage - has become a magnet for all-terrain enthusiasts.
In Jessup, Officer Nardozzi said some of the ATV tourists had created a campground complete with tents and grills. Portions of that property are owned by the Scranton Lackawanna Industrial Building Co., Daniel Siniawa and others. Some of the land along the Casey Highway is being reclaimed by SLIBCO to expand the Valley View Business Park.
State law says ATV owners can ride the vehicles only on their own property or, with permission from landowners, on other private property.
Even then, ATV operation must be permitted by local ordinances. There are some private ATV parks in the state and some state lands open to ATV use, but only on trails, not off-road.
The investigation is continuing. Officer Nardozzi said that while the ATV operators were trespassing, the land is not posted, so trespassing laws are unenforceable.
Contact the writer:
dfalchek@timesshamrock.com --
I could post a hundred examples either way, but all that would do is reinforce the fact that this is a really dangerous sport/hobby and probably should be banned like boating, driving, walking, bicycling, smoking, drinking, swimming, etc, etc...
