It’s been a bad summer for people on all-terrain vehicles and the people who ride them. Accident reports from throughout the state are stacking up: Two ATVs collide on a city street. The driver of one is arrested for drunk driving.The other driver is critically hurt. A man is killed when his ATV misses a curve and crashes into a tree. A boy riding an ATV in a street hits a curb, is thrown off,and dies. A man stops an ATV in the road and is hit by a car. A boy swerves to miss an animal in the road and is seriously hurt when the machine overturns and throws him off.
Personal injury lawyers point to Missouri’s ninth place national ranking for ATV-related deaths in 2006, a number from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. .
"These things are being operated on the highway and they’re not designed for highway use. The statutes actually say that the only time they should be operated on the highway is for agricultural uses only," says Highway Patrol spokesman John Hotz. He says the tires on ATVs are not designed for highway speeds.
Hotz says they’re allowed on roads only for agricultural purposes and must be operated and marked as slow-moving vehicles. The law says children have to be supervised even on the parents’ property.
But the accident reports are showing too many people are using them wrongly in the wrong places…
UPload BP interview with Lt. Hotz (6:29 mp3)
