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ATV Safety Training Pushed For Kids As Accidents Rise

BURNSVILLE, MN (AP) - Keith Grundhauser spent four hours tearing around a dusty parking lot on a big green ATV, shifting his weight from side-to-side through curves and leaning back hard during panic stops to keep the machine's wheels on the ground.

Now 19, he started riding all-terrain vehicles capable of hitting highway speeds when most children were stuck on bicycles. But it wasn't until last week that he got formal training.

A $100 check from the maker of his new ATV persuaded him to take the class in riding the popular machines that often leave their riders with sore thumbs and shoulders from gripping the throttle and hanging onto the handlebars.

"Everyone thinks they know everything, but they don't," said Grundhauser, of St. Paul, after taking a ride around Buck Hill Ski Area south of Minneapolis with a safety instructor.

Plenty of people like Grundhauser grow up riding ATVs which have grown particularly popular in Minnesota. Hunters use them to navigate the woods, while others ride the state's trails in the summer. Though Grundhauser took a safety course after years of riding, many never do.

The increased popularity also means more people are getting hurt on ATV's - especially children who might not be trained, or strong enough, to handle the speedy machines that weigh hundreds of pounds. Both nationally and locally, advocacy groups are lobbying to reform ATV regulations to make sure children are prepared to handle them before they hit the trails and get hurt.

Of the almost 340 ATV accidents in Minnesota last year - 24 of which were fatal - 133 of the riders were between 10 and 20, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. Six of them were younger than 10.

Five of the fatalities were children under 16.

The most common mistakes that inexperienced riders - both children and adults - make are not wearing helmets and now knowing how to use their bodies to help control the machine, an expert said.

Teens "feel that they are immortal," said Dave Hendricks, president of the ATV Association of Minnesota, the largest rider group in the country with 11,000 members.

Hendricks, a certified safety instructor, teaches both the youth safety course offered by the DNR and the course offered by the national ATV Safety Institute, which is funded by ATV manufacturers.

His group is lobbying for state legislation that would require safety training for children or anyone with recorded violations like driving recklessly.

According to Hendricks, state law allows children from 12 to 15 to ride ATVs on public property if they have taken the DNR safety course; the state can't enforce those rules on private land.

Nationally, the ATV Safety Institute recommends children under 16 only ride ATVs with small engines equipped with devices that limit speeds to no more than 15 mph, said Mike Mount, a spokesman for the Irvine, Calif.-based nonprofit institute.

But as injuries and deaths pile up, the rules of the trail could change. Earlier this month, the chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Hal Stratton, sent a memo to his staff ordering a top-to-bottom review of national safety standards for ATVs.

Sutton asked staffers to consider whether pre-purchase training should be required and if ATV dealers should provide child-injury statistics at the time of purchase.

Children are particularly at risk because heavy machines can pin and suffocate them, said Carolyn Anderson, president of the Massachusetts-based Concerned Families for ATV Safety. Group members know first hand how dangerous the machines can be: all have lost children in ATV accidents.

Anderson's group is lobbying for a national ban on the sale of adult-sized ATVs to be used by children under 16. It's the only way she sees from keeping kids off the heavier machines.

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, children under 16 accounted for one-third of the almost 6,000 ATV-related deaths in the country between 1982 and 2003. Of accidents where the engine size and the age of the driver were known, 86 percent involved children using adult-sized ATVs.

Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said the sport's growing popularity is a contributing factor to increased injury statistics. Nationwide, he said, there were 1.9 million ATVs in use in 1993. By 2003, that number had jumped to 6.2 million.

As that number continues to grow, Anderson said, groups like hers will continue trying to educate the public about the risks of ATV use for children.

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