Death of a 4th grader on ATV

Well this hits close to home. My understanding is that this happened at Stoney Lonesome in Cullman AL. It a new park controlled by the city of Cullman. The story is close to the end of the vid so you can skip through the other stuff. My thoughts and prayers are with the girls parents, relatives and friends.

It also raises serious questions in my judgement to allow my kids to ride ATV's. My 10 year old girl is on her second ATV. My son, 6, started on an ATV and now rides a dirtbike. The question that comes to my mind is, do I get rid of the bikes? I would like to here what everyone has to say on this. I started out at four riding a honda 50 but never had a serious injury, however, as a parent, that doesnt ease my mind.

A 4th grade died this past weekend when her 4 wheeler flipped over on her. Just saw it on the news and watched the vid at http://www.waff.com/global/Category.asp?C=151146&clipId=&topVideoCatNo=15046&topVideoCatNoB=105966&topVideoCatNoC=105977&topVideoCatNoD=110674&topVideoCatNoE=109699&clipId=3553234&topVideoCatNo=104485&autoStart=true

Dave , I feel bad for the folks.
but i would not stop them from rideing.
parents just need to teach them what to do and what not to do.
I started riding at around 2 to 3 on an indian 50 mini. and by 6
i was racing moto cross. raced for years. road simi factory
for Yamaha in 250 and 500 open pro from 77 to 82. and i had some hell of a crashes.
no broken bones and i am still here. Not to say bad things dont happen.
to friends of mine i road with . David Baily and Danny Magoo chandler are both
paralyzed like nick from major crashes. so there is always risk in life.
just like any of us could be hurt on these UTV's but we love it and do it anyway.
got to enjoy life as best you can. use your head , and not worry about the bad.

Just my view. let the boy have fun...
you dont want him to be like these dam kids that sit in the house
playing video games all the time. i will never understand that.
life is passing them by...

Chris...

good post Chris

That is sad.

That's really sad and I know the parents will be a long time getting past it.
I hate to read about things like that. However, things happen and I would not stop my kids or grandkids from riding after they had proper instructions and stern words after I observed them being crazy. My brother, a mature man, had his ATV to flip and he came out of it with a hospital visit and shoulder operation, so these things can bite.

dave, my kids have rode all there lives my grandkids are 5 thru 14 they ride ,all the kids shoot guns with the adults ,its training and supervision. accidents happen the grand daughter has been hurt worse on a bicycle than on the quad. 3 yrs ago my best huntin buddies 14 yr old son was killed on his 300 quad he was checking his trap lines along side a field ditch and the bank gave way flipping him into the ditch not 18 inches of water and pinned him under and he drown. this was a kid that did everything on the farm ran big tractors combines ,silage equipment etc, just a freak accident. my bud rick is still devistated, but he still rides with the younger son. keep a eye on them, and like chris says,couch taters you dont want

Chris makes very good points. This is a tragic story. However, I would find out some details before I reacted. Try and find out if she had a helmet where she was riding.

I am not trying to make this about fault. There are many stories here in Kentucky where kinds have died on ATV. Usually it turns out "no helmet". I know that does not help the parents of the kid. However, maybe it can help you out when making your decision about your kids and ATV.

Unfortunately, Tragic accidents do happen . It can happen on a ATV, riding a horse, or on a ski trip. The main thing with young ones is start them early, train and equip them properly, and dont allow them to go unsupervised until your sure they they are responsible enough to do so.

West Virginia has more ATV deaths per capita than any state in the nation year after year. Most of those are attributed to drugs/alcohol, or high speed on paved roads. It is very rare when a child this age is killed. The only one that comes to my mind here is a few years ago a boy about the same age as this girl had a full size ATV roll and trap him in a creek. He drowned before help could arrive.

Like I said above. I believe that if properly trained, equiped, and supervised. A child can enjoy this recreation safely. With that said, freak accidents can still occur, as with anything you do in life.

I would like to have heard the details of what happened, So at least we could see if it was preventable., but life is a risk, people die in their bathrooms. You just have to be careful wherever you are.

It breaks my heart to hear of such tragic news but there is comfort in knowing that we have a creator who oversees all. I've struggled with this issue for a long time and here as been my problem --- you can teach kids all day long about the safety and danger involved in this sport but they will never know the true meaning of that until they taste it. When I was in kindergarten I had a Honda zr50. By the time I was in 5th grade, I was on a Honda CR80. My parents had two 10ft driveways separated by a 10ft medium a total of 30 ft across and a perfect bank to jump them. I made the jump several times and became comfortable with it. My parents were very pissed and took my bike away and grounded me for a month. Well shortly after a month had passed, I was back on my bike and there so happen to be some girls walking down the road so i decided to show off and what better way to do that than to clear the driveways. Well the forks collapsed and I ended up in the hospital for a month. That's when I learned to respect it. So my struggle has been it only takes one time to truly respect it and it only takes one time not to survive it. I can only pray and hope that those two times dosent happen at the same time for those that are new at the sport.

Very well said Jerrzr.....very well said!!

Thanks for all the feedback on to or not to. By the way I noticed that this didnt happen a Stoney Lonesome, but somewhere in South AL.