ATV injuries skyrocketing in rural Canada
September 18th, 2009 by Kurt Niland
As in rural parts of the United States, all-terrain vehicles in rural Canada are becoming a way of life. Unhindered by wild, rugged landscapes, ATVs for many seem like the perfect choice for hunting, trapping, farming, or just exploring and having fun trail blazing and off-roading. However, as the ATVs grow in popularity, so do the number of traumatic injuries reported by many hospitals. Sudbury Regional Hospital in northern Ontario, for instance, reports an explosion of ATV-related trauma since 2007.
Dr. Steven Socransky, medical director of Sudbury Regional’s Trauma Program, urged area residents to exercise every caution when riding on an ATV.
“People must recognize that ATVs are heavy, powerful machines that can be difficult to operate safely, particularly by children and young adolescents. They require strength, training, special skills and knowledge that must be learned over a period of time,” he said in a press release.
According to Sudbury Northern Life, “loss of control” is the most cited cause of ATV accidents. Driver error and negligence sometimes contribute to collisions and rollovers, as do ATV design and defects. The Yamaha Rhino, for instance, has claimed as much notoriety in the ATV world as it did fame for the abnormally high number of injuries and fatalities associated with it. Safety advocates and consumer groups assert that the Rhino’s narrow stance and lack of safety features, among other shortcomings, cause it to roll over unexpectedly on flat terrain and at low speeds. Earlier this year, the CPSC and Yamaha announced a recall of all Rhino models for a series of safety upgrades.
According to Sudbury Northern Life, the Canadian Institute of Health Information reports that “the number of ATV-related injuries severe enough to require hospitalization jumped 50 per cent in Canada between 1996 and 2001, with 36 per cent of hospitalizations occurring among children and youth.”
Moreover, “Stats Canada numbers show ATV and other off-road motor vehicles rank as the fourth most common cause of injury-related deaths among Canadian children and youth aged 5 to 19 years.”
According to Canadian government records, children are six times more likely to receive a significant injury riding an ATV than they are in a conventional motor vehicle.
The ever-growing popularity of ATVs in Canada, combined with the vehicles’ inherent dangers, amount to a serious threat to public safety in Canada. Pleas such as the one made by Sudbury Regional Hospital will likely become more common as growing numbers of people experience first hand the devastation and trauma the vehicles can cause.