ATV accidents, casualties remain a concern in rural America; safety precautions being ignored

All-terrain vehicles are a common sight in rural areas—often used for work and recreation—and almost as common are ATV accidents resulting in serious injuries or death. Oftentimes the accidents occur because riders have not received training, don't wear a helmet, have too many people riding the vehicle, are on an ATV that's the wrong size for them or wander out onto paved roads into vehicular traffic, reports KKCO 11 News in Grand Junction, Colo. (WFMJ 21 News photo: A teen was injured on Tuesday in an ATV accident in Shenango Township, Pennsylvania)

A quick Google search results in a number of ATV accidents, including: two people crashing into a pickup truck in Gallitzin, Pa.; a woman and a child injured in New Bloomfield, Pa.; a Huntingburg, Ind. teen dying in a crash; a Shaler, Pa. teen recovering from a broken spine; a Great Falls, Mont. man dying in a rollover; and a 4-year-old dying in Butler County, Pennsylvania.

In 2013, Missouri had 300 injuries involving ATV riders and 30 deaths, Hope Kirwan reports for KBIA 91.3 in Columbia. "According to a 2010 study by researchers at John Hopkins Center for Surgical Trials and Outcomes Research, riders involved in ATV accidents are more likely to die or have more severe injuries than riders involved in motorcycle crashes."

One of the main source of accidents is when ATV riders go onto public roads, which is illegal in Missouri unless it's for agricultural work, Kirwin writes. Capt. Jay Hull of the Missouri State Highway Patrol told Kirwin, “Any time you start mixing off-road vehicles with passenger vehicles or pick-up trucks and things like that on a highway, you're going to see some traffic crashes. They're a little harder to control,  and there's just a lot of traffic out there and they're difficult to see.” (Read more)

In 2011 an estimated 115,000 people were treated in U.S. emergency rooms for ATV-related injuries, says ATV Safety.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a report in December 2013 that said that from 2007-11, the most recent years data was available, 1,701 ATV riders died in crashes on public roads in the U.S. More than 86 percent of the accidents took place in rural areas or rural states, with about half of the casualties being teenagers. Only 13 percent of drivers and 6 percent of passengers were wearing helmets, 43 percent of drivers killed were legally drunk and speeding was reported as a factor in 42 percent of single-vehicle accidents and 19 percent of multi-vehicle crashes.

Kentucky had the most ATV casualties from 2007-11, with 122, the report says. Pennsylvania had 97, West Virginia 96, Texas 95, California 79 and Florida 74. Of all casualties nationally, 25.9 percent involved people ages 20-29.