Maryland boy drowns after ATV rollover
March 29th, 2010 by Kurt Niland
A four-year-old boy was found dead last Saturday night in a creek bed after the all-terrain vehicle he was driving flipped, pinning him underneath. According to initial reports, the boy was last seen playing outside with a group of children on his parents’ property in Frederick County, Maryland, before he wandered off on his own and got on the Polaris Predator 50cc ATV, a model designed for children.
The boy’s parents told authorities they did not know the boy had taken the ATV and that they began to search for him “within several minutes.” They found the boy just after 7 p.m. trapped in the water underneath the overturned vehicle. The parents administered CPR until emergency medical help arrived.
Maryland’s Office of the Chief medical Examiner has ruled the boy’s death to be an accidental drowning.
Authorities say the boy was found wearing a helmet. According to the parents, he was allowed to ride the Polaris ATV, but they told authorities the ATVs had been put away for the night.
The investigation remains open, though Police have stated that it appears no laws were broken.
Maryland law prohibits children under 12 years to operate ATVs on public land, but there are no restrictions for ATV use on private property in the state.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has evaluated the safety standards for ATVs as established by the Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association and found that they do not “adequately address the deaths and injuries associated with ROV rollovers and collisions.” Inadequate lateral stability, undesirable steering characteristics, and insufficient occupant protection during rollover crashes are some of the characteristics that make the vehicles so dangerous, the CPSC says.
In a statement last October about the dangers of ATVs, Inez Tenenbaum urged parents to keep their children off of ATVs.
“I urge all riders and passengers to strap on a helmet, use the seat belt, know the terrain, and never allow anyone under 16 to drive these vehicles,” Tenenbaum said.
Polaris touts its line of child-oriented vehicles with the tagline: TOUGH ATVs FOR TOUGH KIDS