Find out how to keep away from accidents this summer time

For a lot of Individuals, summer time is synonymous with All-Terrain Automobiles (ATVs).

These rigs are well-liked with adults and children alike—and accidents suffered in crashes of ATVs and different off-highway automobiles declare about 700 lives every year in america. About 100,000 persons are handled within the nation’s emergency rooms for accidents ensuing from off-highway automobile (OHV) use.

That is why the U.S. Client Product Security Fee (CPSC) is providing suggestions for safer driving because the summer time of 2022 will get into gear.

“These automobiles usually are not toys and ought to be used solely as directed,” fee chairman Alex Hoehn-Saric mentioned in a CPSC information launch. “For their very own security, it’s essential that riders youthful than 16 drive solely age-appropriate youth fashions, and by no means grownup fashions. And so they all ought to at all times drive safely and put on protecting tools.”

The CPSC recommends getting hands-on coaching from a certified teacher in an ATV Security Institute course.

OHVs embrace all-terrain automobiles, leisure off-highway automobiles and utility-terrain automobiles.

Listed below are some key security suggestions for his or her use:

• By no means trip with extra passengers than there are seats. Most ATVs are designed for a single rider.
• Do not trip on public roads, besides to cross the place permitted by legislation. Keep off paved roads.
• Do not drink alcohol earlier than or whereas driving an ATV. As with ingesting and driving a automobile, alcohol can impair judgment and response time.
• At all times put on a helmet and different protecting gear, together with eye safety, boots, gloves, lengthy pants and a long-sleeved shirt.
• Riders youthful than 16 years previous ought to drive solely age-appropriate youth fashions, by no means grownup fashions.

Between 2016 and 2018, 2,211 folks nationwide died in OHV incidents, in response to the CPSC. ATVs accounted for practically three-quarters of these deaths. Practically 300 concerned kids below age 16.

Over 5 years, ATVs had been the automobile concerned in 96% of the OHV accidents.

State legal guidelines governing ATVs range broadly. Greater than 42% of deaths from OHV incidents between 2016 and 2018 occurred in 10 states: Texas, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and California, Florida, North Carolina, New York, Alabama and Michigan.

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