Statistics show all-terrain vehicles require protective equipment

Off road vehicle usage has increased over the years. It now includes all-terrain vehicles (ATV’s), utility terrain vehicles (UTV’s), dirt bikes, golf carts and snowmobiles.

Many people tend to think that they are safe enough to not wear protective equipment. Those people would be wrong.

There are over 500,000 off road vehicle related injuries annually. They are associated with about 2,500 deaths.

ATV’s are the most frequently involved. Over 70 percent of the injuries come from them.

ATV crashes resulted in 56 percent of the injuries being to the head and neck. Another 21 percent were fractures. Golf cart injuries were primarily head and neck. These injuries occurred in 79 percent of crashes. UTV injuries had 45 percent with fractures and another four percent with amputations. Snowmobiles had internal organ injuries in 33 percent. 

Drivers were at the greatest risk of injury. They accounted for 76 percent of the injuries. Passengers made up 22 percent of the injuries. The remaining two percent involved bystanders.

Causes of injuries included overturned vehicles. They included collisions. They included ejections.

Overturns were associated with things like steep terrain, sharp turns and high speeds. They were also associated with improper vehicle loading. Vehicles with more than just the driver lead to an imbalanced load. These issues are all things that are avoidable by knowledgable drivers.

About two-thirds of fatalities occurred with overturns following a collision. In most cases (61 percent), the collision was with a stationary object. An additional 30 percent involved other vehicles. Ejections occurred in over 80 percent of fatal cases.

One thing is clear. ATV’s involve 70 percent of the accidents. Of those accidents, 56 percent of the injuries are to the head and neck. They include traumatic brain injuries, skull fractures and intracranial hemorrhages. Therefore, common sense would indicate that no one should ride on an ATV without a crash helmet.

Unfortunately, common sense is not a commodity found with most of the riders. Only 30 percent of injured riders wore helmets. The rate is even lower than that in rural areas like Sussex County. That means that most riders feel there is no reason to wear a helmet when doing an activity that has a high risk of head injury. 

We appear to be where we were in the mid-1970’s when infant car seats were found to be so protective that state laws mandating them cut down on the number of injuries and deaths dramatically. Massachusetts was the first state to pass a law regarding off highway vehicles. The result was that emergency room visits decreased by 50 percent and hospitalizations decreased by 41 percent.

The statistics are clear. Using off road vehicles is dangerous. There are things that can be done to recede the dangers. However, about 500,000 injuries a year suggest that is not always happening.