› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
A 22-year-old student helicopter pilot was killed early Sunday morning when the all-terrain vehicle she was driving rolled over. Reports say that Aura Corina Dacin, who friends described as a free spirit, “wild child” and thrill seeker, was driving the ATV at Oakland-Troy Airport in Troy, Michigan, when the rollover occurred.
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.
A bill that would have encouraged ATV safety by setting age and passenger limits and requiring passengers to wear helmets died in Mississippi’s last legislative session. Now another child is dead and two others injured following an ATV accident in the Hebron Community, located about halfway between Jackson and Hattiesburg in the south-central portion of state.
A Mississippi coroner has become a strong advocate of tougher laws governing the operation of all-terrain vehicles because of the horrific injuries she has seen on the job. Carolyn Gillentine-Green, the Coroner of Lee County, Mississippi, told Jackson’s Clarion-Ledger that she supported any measures that would improve ATV safety in her state. “I’m a proponent for anything to make it safer,” Gillentine-Green told the paper.
A report on Nashville FOX affiliate WZTV’s website says a rash of motor vehicle accidents in Kentucky last week has left 15 people dead, and 4 of the victims were on all-terrain vehicles, according to Kentucky State Police. The latest deaths bring the total number of ATV-related fatalities statewide to 14.
