Citation

Helmkamp JC. Inj. Prev. 2007; 13(6): 426-428.

Affiliation

Injury Control Research Center and Department of Community Medicine, West Virginia University, PO Box 9151, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA; jhelmkamp@hsc.wvu.edu.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1136/ip.2007.016030

PMID

18056322

PMCID

PMC2598310

Abstract

As ATV riding has become an immensely popular family-oriented activity, the availability and use of ATVs has led to increased exposure to hazardous and unsafe conditions that have resulted in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries nationally. In fact, the estimated number of deaths associated with ATVs has risen nearly 180% from 276 deaths in 1995 to 767 in 2004 (the most recent year for which annual fatality data are available). Recreational riding often involves not only the driver/operator but passengers as well. There has been little attention directed towards passengers, however. A brief review of fatal ATV crashes in West Virginia between 2001 and mid-2007 found that 21% (48 of 225) of the crashes involved ATVs carrying passengers. Forty six percent (22 of 48) of these victims were passengers; 57% of the victims were male with an average age of 33.0 years, and the remainder female with an average age of 21.5 years. Sixteen percent of these crashes involved alcohol.

The objective of this study was to further review West Virginia�s ATV crashes involving passengers and determine family relationships (eg, father�son, grandmother�grandson, sister�sister, husband�wife) between the driver and passenger, and to estimate the economic burden of these deaths.

Language: en