Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

An all-terrain vehicle accident has claimed the life of a 7-year-old boy from Troy, Illinois. Authorities investigating the accident say that Austin J. Henry was riding a Chinese-made ATV on his parents’ property when he apparently lost control of the vehicle.

“Parental supervision was present he had a helmet on and apparently he has ridden the ATV several times in the past,” Capt. Ron Luttrell of the Troy Police Department, told Fox 2 News of St. Louis, Ill. The boy’s father says that he suspects the throttle on the ATV jammed, causing his son to accelerate uncontrollably. The ATV hit a curb, throwing Austin into a tree, and then rolled into the side of a house where it burst into flames.

A neighbor performed CPR on Austin before an ambulance rushed him to a local hospital, but the boy succumbed to injuries he received in the accident. The Madison County Coroner’s Office says the cause of death was head and chest trauma.

Most consumer and safety advocates say that Chinese ATVs are poorly made and unsafe to drive. Austin was driving a SunL Cool Sport gas-powered four-wheeler at the time of the accident.

An attorney who has experience with cases involving Chinese ATVs told Fox 2 News that many consumers are attracted to the poorly made ATVs because of their low price and remain unaware about their risks.

“To hear about this child dying just breaks my heart because these Chinese made ATV’s are just accidents waiting to happen,” he told Fox 2 News.

According to the Fox report, Troy police who investigated the accident believe the parents took every precaution and that fault lays entirely on the manufacturer.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 at 10:18 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.