Most of the ATVs are designed to be driven by a single passenger only. If a second or third passenger is boarded, then a disaster may ensue, as these passengers put an extra unaffordable load on the vehicle.
Sometimes during the accident, it has also been observed that the second or the third passenger may fall off the ATV during rolling over. The other unavoidable reason for the accident is some defective spare parts installed in the system.
This faulty part can be anything from a tire, clutch, throttle, gas tank, fender to a shifter. Some other causes of ATV crashes can be as follows. Driving an ATV on a paved road because ATVs are meant to be driven off-road, and they are poorly handled and driven on smooth pavements. If the driver of the ATV is inexperienced, then there are more chances that during riding, it could meet with an accident, or if the driver is a child or a teenager, then adult supervision is a must requirement.
To perform dangerous stunts on ATVs while driving can also lead to accidents. If one is driving an ATV in an unfamiliar area, then there are more chances that he could meet with an accident.
If someone fails to abide by the laws set by the local administration and the ministry of transport, then the chances of the accident are immensely increased. By looking at the statistics discussed above, we can easily estimate the fatalities and types of injuries caused by these ATV accidents. No doubt that ATV is a dangerous ride, its heavyweight and absence of a seatbelt make it even more dangerous to drive. ATV accidents may end up in deaths or some fatal injuries, which are discussed below.
While riding an ATV, it is always advised to take precautionary measures. The most important of them includes wearing a helmet. ATVs have no roofs, and this could be detrimental, especially if you are driving at high speed. A helmet protects the head and prevents fatal head injuries like a trauma, hemorrhage, or a skull fracture. The approximate weight of an ATV ranges between to pounds or more. It means that during an accident, when an ATV flips, it can exert a significant amount of pressure on your body.
Villegas says that these findings may allow parents, legislators, educators and those in the ATV industry to make better decisions about the use of the off-road vehicles. She also says that studies like these could help ATV manufacturers design and implement increased safety technology in ATVs, similar to how automobile manufacturers have used research to make safer cars and trucks.
Hopkins researchers Stephen M. Bowman, Ph. Schneider, Ph. Haut, M. Stevens, M. Efron, M. Media Contact: Stephanie Desmon ; sdesmon1 jhmi. Contact us or find a patient care location. Privacy Statement. Non-Discrimination Notice. Millions use them for ranching, hunting and family outings on private trails, and the casualties hit riders of all ages and experience levels.
In some cases, riders seem to be doing only what their ATV's name says: driving on all terrain. He couldn't work up much speed on the narrow, switchback trail.
Nevertheless, the back end of Thompson's ATV pitched forward as he rode down a hill. Tony Thompson, 25, found his father lying on the ground "folded like an accordion. Thompson told his son the accident happened without warning. Minutes later, he died. The rollovers. Federal records show that more than half of those who die on ATVs perish in crashes where the machines roll over sideways or flip forward or backward. In some cases, overturns happen after the ATV hits something or tumbles off a steep drop.
But about a third of the time, the government data show, rollovers are the first known event in a fatal crash. And as ATV companies make heavier machines, overturns pose an increasing danger. ATV companies are quick to point to the large number of crashes in which riders ignore warnings. That is true more than 80 percent of the time in the government's database of fatal crashes, The Oregonian's analysis found. The warnings are posted right on the ATVs and state clearly what riders shouldn't do: drink and drive, ride without a helmet, carry a passenger or operate an adult machine if under Labels also warn against riding on public roads, where traffic is a hazard, or on pavement, because ATV tires are for off-road surfaces.
But failure to comply with warnings doesn't always explain rollovers, The Oregonian found. Working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission's crash data, the newspaper examined 2, fatal accidents involving four-wheel ATVs since and separated the cases into two groups: the large group of riders who ignored at least one safety warning, and the much smaller group of riders who didn't.
The newspaper then looked to see how often overturns were the primary event in the crash. The unexpected result: Riders who followed the warnings overturned in about two out of five cases, a rate comparable to the frequency of rollovers in the group that ignored one or more warnings.
The comparison doesn't suggest that riders should ignore safety warnings. The analysis also showed, for example, that overturns are more likely in crashes where an adult-sized ATV is driven by a child under A lawyer for the industry's trade group, the Specialty Vehicle Institute of America, called The Oregonian's analysis "fatally flawed," saying the industry's research over the years shows the benefits of following warnings.
The persistence of rollovers among riders who followed the basic precautions shows why engineers and safety advocates have long pointed to another factor: ATV design.
ATVs have a narrow track width and high ground clearance, necessary qualities that allow them to travel on rough territory and narrow trails. The same qualities make them far less stable than cars or SUVs. Under pressure about rollovers, the ATV companies in signed agreements with the Consumer Product Safety Commission pledging not to build four-wheel ATVs with less sideways stability than those they sold at the time.
Since , the commission hasn't performed tests to check whether the companies kept their pledge. To find out, the newspaper hired engineer Thomas R. Fries of Portland to measure the stability of four popular models. Fries has been a plaintiff's expert in ATV lawsuits and has done defense work in other vehicle crash cases. Fries followed industry and Consumer Product Safety Commission methods.
He first measured front and back stability -- called pitch stability -- and found that all four machines met the current, industry-adopted standard. But Fries said the government's test method overstates stability by 10 percent to 15 percent. To get a more realistic result, he performed a different test.
ATVs were placed on a table and tilted sideways to discover their tip angle -- the point at which their upper wheels lift off the surface. The tilt table method is better, Fries said, because it accounts for the way an ATV's suspension and tires behave. On the tilt table test, all of the machines came in below a stability threshold Fries considered safe.
His report can be read online at www. The ATV manufacturers don't dispute that their machines can roll or flip. Instead, they argue that ATVs are a special breed of vehicle they describe as "rider-active. That's why the consumer product agency warns so strongly that children younger than 16 should stay off adult-sized machines: They lack the size, strength and judgment to control a big ATV.
Six of the overturns involved children younger than With their four fat tires, ATVs look stable. But their name is misleading. ATVs can't go on all terrain, and manufacturers explicitly warn against taking them on rough, steep or unfamiliar ground. In its safety video, Polaris offers riders this advice if an overturn seems imminent: "Be prepared to dismount quickly if necessary. Aryck Kalinsky didn't get the chance to bail out. It was another bad break in a life filled with them. Raised in a troubled home, he spent his adolescence in foster care.
But Kalinsky was a stubborn optimist and a hard worker. He loved his job at a local dog kennel. By the summer of , the year-old persuaded state officials to let him move into his own place in Rainier.
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