› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
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.
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.
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.
A 48-year old man from Leadville, Colorado, was found unconscious and bleeding Tuesday after the all-terrain vehicle he was driving rolled about a mile and a half down the summit of Hagerman Pass in the Mt. Massive Wilderness Area near Aspen. According to the Aspen Times, a hunter called authorities from the top of the pass after finding Todd Shepherd lying unconscious on a road near the summit. The man is reported to have life threatening injuries, but the specific nature of his condition hasn’t been released.
An all-terrain vehicle accident claimed the life of 15-year-old high school student from University Heights, Ohio, a community east of Cleveland. A report by NBC affiliate WKYC in Cleveland said that Dan Murphy was riding on an ATV with 3 other students from St. Ignatius High School, A preparatory school in Cleveland run by the Jesuits.
Prompted by the accidental death of a former Nebraska state senator and lifelong farmer, Omaha’s World-Herald published a report about the dangers of farming. The profession, which is a way of life in the rural state, is also one of the most dangerous in the United States, the World-Herald points out, thanks in part to all-terrain vehicles and their propensity to crash.
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.
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.
The untimely death of 21-year-old Brenda Strizek, a native of Valparaiso, Nebraska, who lost her life in an all-terrain vehicle accident on August 8, 2009, has called attention to the issue of ATV safety in Nebraska. A few days after the accident, Lincoln’s Journal Star published an article entitled “ATV fun comes with risk,” highlighting the recreational and practical benefits of off-road vehicles, but also underscoring their dangers.
