Are all terrain vehicles (ATVs) expensive toys, or dangerous motor vehicles requiring a license to drive? Increasingly health officials are choosing the latter.
"I practice in Idaho, ATV ridership is very common," said Dr. Kevin G. Shea, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in pediatrics. "These vehicles can produce significant injuries in young riders, and we care for many in our community. Nationwide, there is even a rise in amputations and death from the use of these powerful vehicles."
Over the years, ATVs and motocross motorcycles have gained popularity and marketed as toys to consumers. These high-velocity machines can weigh between 300 and 600 pounds, and run on average between 25 and 60 miles per hour, while some even reach maximum speeds of 75 miles per hour.
In 2008, nearly 28 percent of all ATV-related injuries were to children younger than 16, according to Shea. There were an estimated 135,000 injuries for riders of all ages for ATV use. A majority of ATV injuries result from tipping, overturning or multiple riders.
Campbell Clinic-LeBonheur Medical Center in Memphis looked at 4,483 children in the U.S. who were injured in an ATV-related accident over a period of several years. Of those children, 332 or 7.4 percent had a spine injury. This shows a 140 percent increase in children injured, and a 368 percent increase in the number of spinal injuries from 1997, according to Dr. Jeffrey R. Sawyer, chief of pediatric orthopedic trauma at the clinic.
According to Sawyer, 76 percent of patients were male, with a mean age of ATV riders of 12.9 years old.
Multi-rider equals greater risk
Rhinos, or multi-rider ATVs are associated with great risk of primary limb amputation and significantly higher incidence of open extremity fractures compared to single-rider vehicles.
Gregg Wendell Schellack, DO, a fifth-year orthopedic resident at Loma Linda University in California, compared the injury differences between multi-rider ATVs and single-rider ATVs. A total of 110 patients were evaluated over a two-year period.
Schellack found that 39 injuries were multi-rider related, while 71 were single-rider related. Sixty-four percent of multi-rider related-injuries resulted in open fractures, while 11 percent sustained open fractures on a single-rider ATV.
Amputations
Fifteen percent of multi-rider related injuries resulted in primary limb amputations while only one percent of single riders needed amputations. The relative risk of amputation for MR ATV riders was 10.9 times higher than that of standard ATV riders.
"Developing and enforcing a mandatory safety training session before these vehicles can be operated may be an important first step, Shea said. "Better education will be essential, as it is important to educate riders, parents and the public about the potential for serious injury."While the U.S. government has announced steps to increase ATV regulation, things are moving at a slow, bureaucratic pace. The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted last October to write new rules to regulate four-wheeled all-terrain vehicles. But the rule making process will take months, if not years.
The ATV industry has proposed voluntary guidelines but safety advocates say the guidelines have been inadequate and they said today's action puts the industry on notice.
"Every year, more and more families are devastated by deaths and injuries caused by ATVs. This tragic problem continues to be in dire need of an aggressive and immediate solution," said Rachel Weintraub, Director of Product Safety for Consumer Federation of America, in a statement last year.
