2 Teenage girls just got in bad ATV accident ..being airlifted

[scesnick]

As a dirt bike racer, I am not a huge fan of quads. Usually because they tear the crap out of our tracks. Are they dangerous? Sure, just look at what the OP posted that happened in his area. But, like alot of different vehicles, they can be made a whole lot safer by using some common sense and adhearing to the safety precautions.

I have had a few horrendous crashes while racing through the years. I am totally convinced that I would most likely be in a wheelchair today or possibly even dead if it wasn't for safety gear. I once head butted a treewhile racing a GNCC. My helmet actually split in half ! and I cracked my chest protector.
I walked away from that crash with just a concussion and some sore ribs. If it wasn't for my helmet it would have been much worse.

 

[Ken45101]

All this talk about rules, training, and physical fitness misses the main point. ATVs are lethally dangerous by design, and injure & kill a lot of people - particularly kids.

ATVs are obviously useful for maintaining your woodlot and such. But I don't have a lot of respect for people who keep them around so their over-pampered kids can drive real fast for big fun... it's just stupid.

- Mike

The fifteen year olds that overload and overspeed a 4 wheeler will probably be soon graduating to a car...and doing the same thing. How many times have we seen teen drivers do the same exact thing? Should we insist on helmets and roll bars and 4 point restraints on cars for teen drivers?

Sorry, but parents who insist that "kids will be kids and will ignore safe operating" are not doing a good parenting job.

Am I going to put on a helmet and other safety gear to take a bale of hay out to the horses at 2 mph? No. Do I ride 10 mph down a trail in the woods? NO. (I don't ride a horse at 10 mph either!) Do I see an ATV as an "excitement" vehicle? NO! Maybe that's the issue: if someone sees an ATV as an "excitement, adrenaline-rush object, then they had better be wearing protection....or better yet, keeping their feet on the ground!

Ken

 

[zmjc]

The fifteen year olds that overload and overspeed a 4 wheeler will probably be soon graduating to a car...and doing the same thing. How many times have we seen teen drivers do the same exact thing? Should we insist on helmets and roll bars and 4 point restraints on cars for teen drivers?

Well, fortunately car companies have been forced to install sophisticated airbag systems, good seat belts, internal shell structures, and crumple zones.

ATVs don't have anything like that.

On the other hand, every car now has a 200+ HP engine that is way too easy to drive very fast. Progress.

- Mike

 

[Ken45101]

Well, fortunately car companies have been forced to install sophisticated airbag systems, good seat belts, internal shell structures, and crumple zones.

And do those save teens from killing themselves and others???? No

What I saying is that the first line of defense is safe operating. Without that, helmets, etc. are secondary.

 

[zmjc]

What I saying is that the first line of defense is safe operating. Without that, helmets, etc. are secondary.

With ATVs it is pretty much your only line of defense.

And it is not a defense that works well with teenagers, as the statistics show. Sadly.

- Mike

 

[charlz]

The reason we almost never see a severe Motocross accident is they have the gear...they are thrown off, run over, etc...yes they get hurt, but most of them heal and are alive. I have practiced 25 years of ER medicine and the worst accident from Motocross I have seen is a broken collar bone.

"Dress for the crash, not for the ride". However I think a big part of the difference is you tend to separate from the machine when you crash a dirtbike. It seems many of the ATV accidents are 'roll over' type crashes where several hundred pounds of machine helps to crush the rider. As an example, one of the guys who used to work for me lost a niece to an ATV flip/rollover crash. She was riding on the back and her dad was driving. They went up a hill as they had many times before but this time there was a small log down across the trail. It was just enough to 'pop' the front end and they went over backwards. The weight of her dad and the machine crushed her skull and she was brain-dead at the scene No helmets.

On the other hand I have seen a rider die at a motocross event. He bobbled a take off on a jump and plowed straight into the face of the next jump. Went over the bars, broke his neck and died. This was a good rider who had probably been around that track thousands of times. Even with training and gear it can happen.

 

[Ken45101]

With ATVs it is pretty much your only line of defense.

And it is not a defense that works well with teenagers, as the statistics show. Sadly.

- Mike

I think a word you missed is SOME teenagers. Just like those who drink and drive wild. Perhaps it's nature improving the species?

Ken

 

[brin]

Here is a further update on the Girls involved in the accident...

The girl who died and who's picture was in the New paper article in the link on my previous post was the Driver. She ran off the road, hit a culvert and then a tree and both girls were thrown off. There is no news on which girl's parents owned the ATV...many times kids around here take turns driving...so no way to know which girl owned it.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I'm 63 years old. I'm dealing with a reality today that reflects this topic. I am having to work around real issues with short term memory, especially involving language.

I have to believe that issue is a direct result of the many concussions I've suffered over the years. Most of those came in motorcycle and car racing crashes. I had just turned 21 when the most violent one happened. I woke up forty five miles later in an emergency room with no knowledge of the previous week and an open faced Bell what was almost slit in two.

The gear is important because the training is individualized. One person learns by listening and the person next to them can only comprehend by experiencing for instance. They both heard the same lesson, one learned and the other was incapable of learning because of the way they are wired. That child doesn't deserve to die or be permanently disabled just because of a learning disability or misfortune in parent selection.

If a desert crash in the middle of nowhere is so violent that it breaks a helmet one doesn't need much imagination to wonder what the results would have been without a helmet. I'm one of those people that doesn't learn easily. It's worse even now. But it would be impossible but for helmets.