CPSC Urges ATV Riders to Stay Safe

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is urging all ATV riders to stay safe in an effort to curb the annual rising trend in deaths and injuries seen each summer.

Data collected for 2004 to 2006, ATV-related fatalities of children 16 years old and younger rose by approximately 65 percent from March to April. Over the same period of time, adult deaths rose by 85 percent.

From 2004 to 2010, there have been, on average, about 700 ATV-related deaths and approximately 136,000 injuries that required a visit to the emergency room. Many of these injuries were life-altering.

At the end of June 2012, the CPSC had received preliminary reports of 28 children under the age of 16 and 130 adults who have died in an ATV accident since January.

The following guidelines can be found on the CPSC’s website. They offer the following tips to help keep ATV riders safe:

• All ATV drivers, adults and children, should take a hands-on ATV safety course from a certified instructor.
• Always wear protective gear, especially a helmet, when riding an ATV.
• Do not ride on a single-rider ATV as a passenger or carry a passenger if you drive one.
• Never allow more people on any ATV than the vehicle was designed to carry.
• Do not drive ATVs on paved roads. ATVs have solid rear axles, which make turning on paved surfaces difficult and dangerous and increase the risk of the ATV overturning or hitting another object, such as a tree or car.
• Do not permit children younger than 16 years old to drive or ride adult ATVs. Children younger than 16 years old lack the developmental skills to safely drive adults ATVs, and more than 90 percent of all injuries to children involve this scenario. Likewise, children younger than 6 should never be on an ATV, either as a driver or as a passenger.

If you or a loved one has suffered an injury in a Mobile ATV Accident, you may be eligible to pursue compensation for your losses through legal recourse. For more information on the legal rights which may be available to ATV accident injury victims, complete the Free Case Evaluation form on this page.