Riding Right: Some states ignore federal guidance geared to protect children from driving ATVs

ATV laws vary greatly from state to state with ultimate jurisdiction over how and where ATVs can be used and any age restrictions — Kate Bruggenschmidt was 11 years old and weighed just 75 pounds when she climbed atop a 750-pound ATV for a joy ride with a friend.

Every year, according to estimates from the CPSC, ATVs are responsible for more than 100,000 trips to emergency rooms across the country. Kate was driving an adult-sized ATV with one of her teammates on the back. Neither were wearing helmets. The ATV tipped over, and while the teammate had enough time to jump off the back, Kate did not.“She was on an adult-size ATV wearing no safety gear,” Bruggenschmidt said.“ATVs were not our lifestyle. She was very, very, inexperienced. She had never driven an ATV before,” Bruggenschmidt said.

The federal agency was tasked alongside ATV industry leaders with creating both voluntary and mandatory consumer product safety standards. Those standards were meant to be updated as the machines evolved. According to that same report, the CPSC estimated that number, 69,000 of those injured were younger than 12. Most were boys.

Minnesota is also one of only a few states that allow all-terrain vehicles to be operated on public paved roads and highways. The state is home to Polaris and Arctic Cat, two of the largest manufacturers of all-terrain vehicles.‘It’s very confusing for a rider who wants to follow the rules’ Since 2013, the organization has collected the most current off-highway vehicle data, which includes ATV fatalities.

InvestigateTV found the first all-terrain vehicle recall occurred in August of 2000. Since then, there have been a total of 270 recalls of these types of vehicles, as of Dec. 2023. Dr. Jeffrey Haynes, medical director of the pediatric trauma center at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University, agreed.

He said in his experience, most are injured in the head or neck because the rider wasn’t wearing a helmet.

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