Can-Am Headquarters ...Aurora Wheelers ATV Forum > Rides | ATV News and Events > ATV | OHV News > DNR plans off-road education, enforcement |
| Moderated by: zac41, Voodoo, Revicm, OSOKILL, MtnOuty, fmj40 |
|
|||||||||||||||
| DNR plans off-road education, enforcement - ATV | OHV News - Rides | ATV News and Events - Can-Am Headquarters ...Aurora Wheelers ATV Forum | ||||||||||||||||
| Author | Post | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||
|
killswitch_1 Admin 
|
DNR plans off-road education, enforcement Duluth News Tribune Link (requires free subscription) John Myers Duluth News Tribune Published Friday, June 01, 2007 ]Fewer children but more adults are crashing and dying on ATVs in Minnesota, the Department of Natural Resources reports, as efforts to promote off-road safety increase. The DNR on Thursday kicked off its Safe Wheelin’ Weekend, a double-edged public relations effort to both encourage safe riding and crack down on unsafe and illegal behavior by off-road riders. DNR conservation officers, sheriff’s deputies and volunteers from ATV clubs across the state will be patrolling back roads and trails this weekend to keep riders safe and legal. “The worst thing we see is three kids on a machine, not a helmet among them, and all three of them don’t add up to 16 years old ... and there’s no parent in sight,’’ said Phill Morud of Newfolden, Minn., president of the Minnesota All Terrain Vehicle Association of Minnesota, at the Safe Wheelin’ kickoff at Spirit Mountain in Duluth. Kathy Larson, a Minnesota DNR conservation officer assigned to ATV issues, said June brings an increase in people headed outside for fun that can turn tragic. “This weekend coincides [with] when kids get out of school, and that’s when our problems really start every summer,’’ said Larson, who is based in Cloquet. The Safe Wheelin’ effort also is aimed at getting ATV riders to respect private property and sensitive environmental areas such as streams and wetlands, and to obey laws that prevent riding on some forest trails and riding cross-country through forests. The DNR’s annual safety kickoff came two days after a 7-year-old boy died when his ATV rolled on top of him near Warroad; four days after two central Minnesota men were killed when their off-road motorcycles collided head-on in the Nemadji State Forest south of Duluth; and a week after a woman was struck and killed by an ATV while walking along a road near Hinckley. “We can’t have this. It devastates the family involved and it gives ATVs a bad name,’’ Morud said. “We need to get the word out that ATVs are not toys for children. Parents need to get involved here… You can get free ATV training, and your machine’s manufacturer will even pay you to take the course.’’ ATV riding is about as deadly as driving a car in Minnesota, when deaths per registered vehicles are compared. But compared to other outdoor activities, such as hunting and boating, ATVs are much more fatal. Already this year, five people have died in Minnesota on ATVs and two more on off-road motorcycles. Last year in Minnesota, 22 people died on ATVs and another four on off-road motorcycles, the DNR reports. There are about 300,000 ATVs registered in Minnesota, along with 16,000 off-road motorcycles and 9,000 off-road trucks. By comparison, Minnesota has averaged just 1.6 deaths per year for hunting accidents with firearms over the past decade, including two years with no fatalities, with about 500,000 hunters afield. Minnesota has averaged about 19 boating deaths per year for the past decade, with about 863,000 watercraft registered. Fewer kids, more adults Minnesota may be turning a corner in the number of children younger than 18 who are hurt or killed while riding ATVs. Capt. Mike Hammer, the DNR Enforcement Division’s safety director, said mandatory training for children ages 12-15 to operate ATVs on public land is leading to fewer accidents. It’s been especially critical to get children to stop riding in road right-of-ways, Hammer said. Young riders are required to take an at-home CD course, then attend about four hours of classroom training and a field skill session. In 2006, three of the 22people killed in ATV accidents were under age 18. In 2005, only one of the 18 people killed was under age 18. That’s down from five of 24 people killed in ATV accidents under age 18 in 2004; six of 18 in 2003; and three of 10 in 2002. “The effort of about six years now of mandatory [ATV] safety training is beginning to pay off, and we’re seeing fewer kids getting hurt and killed,’’ Hammer said. “Unfortunately, adults are making up for the kids. We’ve seen an increase in adult deaths.’’ understanding atvs Hammer said rollovers and flipovers are by far the leading cause of serious injuries and deaths in ATV accidents. After years of scouring accident reports from his agency’s officers and sheriffs’ offices across the state, Hammer is convinced many riders simply don’t understand how and where to safely operate ATVs. When driven too quickly, which can be just 20 mph in the wrong conditions, ATVs tend to rock between tires on sharp turns. That rocking motion can cause the machines to tip, Hammer said. They also easily tip forward, backward and sideways when on slopes. “As I look at these [accident] reports day after day, it’s the same thing … rollovers, rollovers, rollovers. ATVs by their design are inherently unsafe for rollovers,’’ Hammer said. “We had a case of a gentleman this spring hunting morel mushrooms and his machine flipped over backward on a hill and killed him…. he wasn’t hot-rodding or going too fast. He simply didn’t understand the nature of his machine on a hill.’’ Hammer said the problem is getting worse as ATVs get larger, heavier and faster. “It’s the laws of physics, and humans lose against a 600-pound machine,’’ Hammer said. “My kids ride bicycles.’’
____________________ If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man. - Mark Twain |
|||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
| Current time is 06:28 pm | |
| Can-Am Headquarters ...Aurora Wheelers ATV Forum > Rides | ATV News and Events > ATV | OHV News > DNR plans off-road education, enforcement | |
