Between 1999 and 2003, 51 Utahns died in all-terrain vehicle accidents. About 1,000 people were hospitalized with injuries. It is time for the Legislature to consider whether mandatory driver training could reduce that toll, and how much that training would cost.
Current Utah law requires a person to hold a driver license to operate an ATV on public lands or roads, but it does not require specific ATV training. However, children ages 8-15 must complete a state training course or test before they can legally operate an off-highway vehicle on public property.
The number of deaths and serious injuries suggests that the skills necessary for the safe operation of ATVs are different enough from those for cars that special training should be required of adults, as well as children.
Long ago, Utah made a similar decision about motorcycles. It requires a special license.
The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission is concerned enough about ATV-related deaths and injuries that its chairman has ordered the staff to review all existing ATV safety standards, including pre-sale training and certification requirements.
Utah's Division of Parks and Recreation operates the safety training program for children. But it cannot prevent adults from allowing children to operate ATVs that are too big and powerful for them to control. When the operator can't reach the brakes, there's trouble ahead.
That may explain why the Consumer Product Safety Commission will study "the addition of a youth model appropriate for 14-year-olds" and "written notification of child injury data at the time of sale," as well as "formal notification of safety rules by dealers to buyers" and "enhanced warning labels."
Maybe all that information should be included in a brief safety course that would be required in order to obtain an ATV operator's license. ATV popularity has exploded in the last few years. There currently are about 200,000 of them registered in Utah.
The Legislature should be asking how many of those 51 Utahns who died in ATV accidents between 1999 and 2003 might be alive today if driver training had been required for adults.
