Doctor warns ATVs not safe for children
Posted on Monday, December 3, 2007
Arkansas children are suffering “horrifying” injuries from all-terrain vehicle accidents and shouldn’t be allowed to ride on or drive the off-roading vehicles, an Arkansas Children’s Hospital doctor says.
After seeing case after case of children brought to the emergency room, Dr. Chetan C. Shah decided to compile a decade’s worth of cases in what he calls the largest study of its kind. He is a radiology fellow at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Children’s Hospital.
Among the 500 cases he studied, traumatized limbs had to be amputated and dozens of children were left with brain injuries. In two cases, eye sockets were so badly injured that eyes had to be removed, he said.
“We see these horrifying injuries coming through our ER,” Shah said last week in Little Rock. “We thought that maybe parents aren’t aware that these things are happening.” He presented his findings Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago. He hopes parents will hear about the findings and stop allowing children under 16 to ride ATVs.
In response, an ATV-makers association said in a statement that ATVs are safe for children if the safety guidelines are followed.
Shah’s study included 500 children admitted to Arkansas Children’s Hospital with ATVrelated injuries going back to 1998. More than two-thirds were 1 boys and the average age was 11 / 2 years old. The youngest rider was a 6-month-old who was riding with his mother and suffered a fractured thigh bone. The youngest driver was a 2-year-old on a mini ATV who had four toes amputated. Another 2-year-old driver was found unconscious beside a flipped ATV. Shah said she had a severe brain hemorrhage that left her with permanent disability.
There were six deaths, not including children who died at the scenes of accidents.
Head injuries included 85 skull fractures, 66 cases of bleeding in the brain and 59 brain injuries. Spinal injuries included 21 spine fractures and five spinal chord injuries. Thirty-six children had lung injuries, and 70 had injuries to the spleen, liver, kidneys or pancreas.
Fractured limbs were found in 208 children, with broken legs the most common limb injury. There were 12 amputations, including nine partial foot amputations, one upper-limb amputation and one below-the-knee amputation.
“Most of the kids get a longterm disability, and that’s why I say, ‘ Buy one four-wheeler then get one four-wheeler free, ’” Shah said.
The second vehicle, he said, is a wheelchair.
Shah said children under 16 shouldn’t be riding or driving ATVs, even with safety precautions such as helmets and eye protection. Children haven’t fully developed decision-making skills needed to judge whether a situation is too dangerous to handle.
He said safety precautions such as training classes, speed limiters and helmets may help prevent accidents, but the danger is still too great because of the instability of the vehicles and the small size of children.
“It’s like asking, ‘ Should children be smoking low-nicotine cigarettes or high-nicotine cigarettes ?’” he said. “The answer is no, they should not be smoking at all.” ATV injuries happen because of a lack of training or precaution, according a statement released by the Specialty Vehicle Institute of America in response to Shah’s study. The Californiabased institute is a nonprofit trade association supported by ATV makers including Honda, Polaris, Kawasaki and Arctic Cat.
“Parents and guardians literally hold the key to their child’s safety,” the statement said. “Every ATV has an ignition key, and when an adult controls the key, they control its use.” Children under 16 should drive only appropriately sized ATVs under adult supervision, the institute said. The smaller vehicles are designed for smaller hands and feet and go slower. The institute also warns against: not wearing a helmet, carrying passengers on single-rider vehicles, riding on public roads, using alcohol or drugs, and driving too fast.
One Arkansas ATV enthusiast agreed that safety precautions are important — for parents and children both.
“It’s the adult that needs to be educated more than the child that’s riding it,” said Bob Brooks, a semi-retired industrial electrician in Mena.
Children under 12 shouldn’t be on ATVs, Brooks said.
His club, Ouachita ATVers, formed in August in part to help ATV users to find safe areas to ride.
For children older than 12, parents have speed limiters, tilt monitors and even remote controls to restrict an ATV, he said. In addition, there are many classes available through dealerships for safety instruction.
Allowing a child to ride without instruction is “like handing the keys over to your 12 year-old and saying, ‘ Hey, learn how to drive, ’” Brooks said.
Nationally, the number of children under the age of 16 who died from an ATV-related injury nearly doubled between 1995 and 2005, from 64 to 120, according to the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The deaths in 2005 accounted for 26 percent of deaths of all ages caused by ATV-related injuries. Injuries among children from ATV accidents also more than doubled in that time, from 19, 300 to 40, 400.
In Arkansas, an estimated 49 children under the age of 16 died from ATV-related injuries between 1982 and 2001, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under 16 be prohibited from driving ATVs. It also urges states to pass laws prohibiting children from operating two- and fourwheel off-roading vehicles and ban the sale of new and used three-wheel vehicles.
Arkansas Annotated Code 27-21-107 says children under 12 may not operate ATVs unless with a person older than 18 years of age, on a parent’s land or with the permission of the land owner.
Scott Smith of Eureka Springs said children aren’t allowed on trail rides with his club, Ozark Mountain ATV Trail Association.
But he has seen others taking children on dangerous rides in the mountains.
He’s not opposed to children riding under the right conditions. His own children, for example, rode at slow speeds on smaller sized ATVs under his supervision and in a safe areas.
“It consisted of a cow pasture in front of my house,” he said, “not up and down the Ozarks.” Many activities can be dangerous for children if parents aren’t involved and making the right decisions, he said. For example, he said there’s a new roller rink in his city.
“I’ve seen more kids hurt there than I have on four-wheelers,” Smith said, “so there’s a risk in everything.”
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