› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
The Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety (ACAHS) released some alarming numbers concerning all-terrain vehicle safety at a conference held near Perth, Western Australia last month. Numbers pulled from the country’s national farm injury data reveal that one Australian farmer or child dies each month as a result of injuries received in accidents involving quad bikes (ATVs).
Dion Seymour Jr., a 57-year-old resident of Orrington, Maine, died last month when the all-terrain vehicle he was driving in a remote area rolled over on top of him. According to the Bangor Daily News, Seymour, an avid outdoorsman, left his home at 9 am to go hunting in his favorite hunting area near Bald Mountain in eastern Maine. When Seymour did not return by 9 pm that evening, his wife called authorities to report him missing.
A 12-year old Arkansas boy was killed in an all-terrain vehicle accident on Sunday while conducting farm chores, Arkansas’ Hope Star reports. The victim, identified in the report as Garrett Malone, was driving a 2005 Polaris 500 ATV on his family’s farm in Guernsey, Arkansas when the accident occurred.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Bad Boy Enterprises LLC of Natchez, Mississippi announced a recall today of approximately 3,900 “Bad Boy Buggy” all-terrain vehicles. According to the CPSC alert, the off-road vehicles can accelerate suddenly and unexpectedly, posing serious safety risks to passengers and bystanders.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced today that it intends to further its commitment to improve the safety of Recreational Off-Highway Vehicles (ROVs) and reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries nationwide that are related to these vehicles. The commission voted to publish an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) to address safety hazards associated with vehicle ROVs.
As the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) pushes for legislation that would ban young children from riding all-terrain vehicles in the Canadian province, another boy has been severely injured in an ATV accident. According to The Observer of Sarnia, Ontario, an 11-year-old boy from Warwick Township, located just northeast of Detroit and Windsor, was driving an ATV unsupervised on private property when the accident occurred.
All-terrain vehicle accidents are common in Canada, where the vehicles have become a way of life for so many people living in the country’s vast stretches of rural land and wilderness. Unfortunately, Canada’s youngest citizens account for a significant percent of the injuries and deaths resulting from ATV rollovers and collisions – a grim statistic that has prompted the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) to push for new legislation that would help protect many Ontario children from being injured or killed on ATVs.
Another child has been killed in an all-terrain vehicle accident in Alabama. According to Mobile and Pensacola area press reports, 3-year old girl London Johnson was riding on an ATV with her grandfather, Arthur Lee Rivers, 43, and Isces Johnson, 5 years old, Monday evening when the accident occurred.
Iowa’s Daily Register reported the death of 38-year-old Arthur John Rios, who died from injuries he sustained when his all-terrain vehicle rolled over last Thursday afternoon. According to investigators, Rios was driving a 2004 Polaris Sportsman 500 HD ATV north along a wooded trail just south of Eldorado at the time of the accident. The ATV apparently rolled off the trail and landed in the adjoining river.
Another child was killed in an all-terrain vehicle rollover last weekend, this time a 6-year-old girl from Brownstown, a community in south central Indiana. According to the Tribune, a newspaper serving Jackson County, Indiana, the girl was a passenger on the back of a Honda 400 ATV that was driving up a hill behind her home. Indiana Conservation officer Nathan Berry, who is investigating the accident, said that the girl was wearing a helmet when the accident occurred.
