The Canadian Paediatric Society is calling for better regulation and safety measures to protect kids riding off-road vehicles, including all-terrain vehicles and side-by-sides.
A third of off-road vehicle deaths are kids, teens: Canadian Paediatric Society
Nicole Ireland · The Canadian Press
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The Canadian Paediatric Society is calling for better regulation and safety measures to protect kids riding off-road vehicles, including all-terrain vehicles and side-by-sides.
The society said children and adolescents make up about a third of off-road vehicle deaths.
In a statement released Monday, it said federal, provincial and territorial governments should regulate the use of off-road vehicles the same way they do cars. Those regulations should require kids to be at least 16 years old to drive the vehicles and 12 years old to be a passenger, the society said.
They should also make wearing government-certified helmets mandatory, as kids and teens not wearing one are five times more likely to suffer severe head or neck injuries.
The society said off-road vehicles are specifically designed to be used on dirt trails and in forested areas and should never be driven on hard-surface roads.
Off-road vehicles include all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and side-by-sides (SxSs), which comprise both utility terrain vehicles (UTVs) and recreational off-highway vehicles.
Research suggests that being younger than 16 is a risk factor for losing control of an off-road vehicle, because the necessary developmental and cognitive skills may not be fully formed, the statement said.
WATCH | Advocates call for more ATV safety following 13-year-old boy’s death:
Advocates call for better ATV safety regulations
A 13-year-old boy from Saskatoon is among three people killed in separate fatal ATV crashes in Saskatchewan and Manitoba over the weekend of June 10.
“Staying alert and responding appropriately to sudden changes in terrain involves ‘active riding,’ which requires precise hand-eye co-ordination, physical strength, balance, spatial awareness and constant attention,” said the pediatric society.
“These developmental skills and the cognitive maturity to link actions to consequences — specifically, the implications of unsafe behaviours for self and others and the relationships between distance, speed, and braking — tend to develop in most adolescents between 14 and 16 years of age.”
The pediatric society called on industry to stop marketing and selling off-road vehicles to adolescents under 16 “until safety modifications have been implemented, tested, standardized and proven to be effective in all Canadian settings.”
Risks for severe injury and death highlighted
Provinces and territories should implement training courses and a graduated driver’s licensing system for off-road vehicles, it said.
Pediatricians and primary-care providers also have a role to play, it said, by educating families about the “significant risks for severe injury and death,” even if the off-road vehicle is a “youth model.”
The group said leading causes of death and disability in pediatric ATV crashes include traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury and multi-system crush-related trauma, which directly correlates with increasing vehicle size.
The pediatric society acknowledged that off-road vehicles are widely used in remote areas, on farms and for Indigenous hunting and fishing. In those cases, pediatric care providers should help families reduce the risk to youth by emphasizing the need to avoid paved roads, wear a helmet at all times and only ride as a passenger on vehicles that are designed to carry more than one person.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicole Ireland is a health reporter with The Canadian Press and a former journalist for CBC News.
With files from CBC News
