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City, county, and state officials are banding together in many parts of the country to offer all-terrain-vehicle awareness and safety events. The need for more ATV safety instruction and awareness events increases as the number of people who become seriously injured or killed in rollovers and other ATV accidents continues to grow.
A 13-year old South Carolina boy died last Sunday when the all-terrain vehicle he was driving rolled over and landed on top of him. According to reports by South Carolina CBS affiliate WBTW, Benjamin “Shane” Byers, a resident of Johnsonville, SC, was rushed to Lake City Hospital but was pronounced dead at 2:53 p.m., approximately one hour after the accident occurred.
The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission announced a recall of about 8,500 Polaris all-terrain vehicles for defects that may pose a crash hazard. According to the CPSC, Polaris Industries of Medina, Minn., has received 19 reports of incidents involving the recalled 2009 and 2010 model-year ATVs.
In December we reported how one Mississippi coroner became an advocate of stricter laws governing the use of all-terrain vehicles in her state after witnessing the injury and death the vehicles can cause. Now, other people in that state are echoing the call for more ATV legislation, including the Sheriff of Warren County, Mississippi and two state lawmakers.
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).
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.
An in-depth report of Yamaha Rhinos published by CBS exposes some surprising and ironic facts surrounding the history of the popular off-road vehicle. According to the report, in July 2002, Yamaha executives gathered in an expanse of rural Kentucky to test drive prototypes for a “new generation” of off-road vehicles. These new vehicles would take off-roading to a new level, replacing the single rider ATVs that riders had to straddle, with side by side seats, a cargo compartment and a frame narrow enough to fit in the back of a standard pickup truck. These New Generation Vehicles, or NGVs as Yamaha execs called them, would later be known as the Yamaha Rhino. The first Rhino rollover injuries would occur during these test drives.
21-year-old Jessica Lynne Braithwaite, a resident of Elkmont, Alabama, a community north of Huntsville near the Tennessee line, died last week after losing control of the all-terrain vehicle she was driving. Braithewaite’s ATV ran off the road and into a barbed wire fence. According to authorities, both Braithwaite and 26-year-old Jonathan Barnes, a passenger, were thrown from the vehicle. Braithewaite died at the scene while Barnes was airlifted to Huntsville Hospital, where he remains in serious condition in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit.
A 29-year-old Michigan woman is in critical condition after losing control of the Yamaha Rhino she was driving. Authorities in Wright Township, Michigan, said that Melissa VanBeveren’s Rhino rolled down a ravine and struck a large tree. The passenger, 47-year-old Al Dietrich, was able to jump out of the vehicle before it hit the tree and suffered only minor bruises and scrapes.
A Texas woman who injured her right leg when the Yamaha Rhino she was a passenger in rolled over is taking the manufacturer to court, claiming that the UTV is “defective and unfit for its intended use.” The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the Texarkana Division of the Eastern District of Texas, accuses Yamaha Motor Corporation, Yamaha Manufacturing, and Yamaha Motor Company of “strict liability, negligence, and breach of implied and express warranties,” according to the Southeast Texas Record.
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