ATV and Snowmobile P.A.R.T.Y.

Risk-tolerance and ATV-related Injuries in Youth

Audrey Karperien, Lakeland P.A.R.T.Y. Program Association audrey@lakelandparty.ca

ATV-related injuries have become a staggering problem in our province. Whereas in all of Canada, children and adolescents make up about 25% of ATV-related deaths, in Alberta, they make up a notably higher proportion - about 38%. KidSafe has reported that in 2002-03, ATV activities became the most common sport- and recreation-related major trauma in our province. The Alberta Centre for Injury Control and Research has determined that in the Aspen Health Region during ATV season, hospitals see 4 people a day for ATV-related injuries, 2 of those being youth. The problem has been studied. We know that the most common type of ATV-related injury in youth is a head injury, and the most common mechanism a roll-over (i.e., loss of control). The burning question that remains is why? Access to these machines is chiefly the purview of parents and other adults, so perhaps the most direct question to ask is “Why do the adults in control kill and maim our youth on these vehicles?”.

Over the last few years, that question has been put to more than 400 adults and young people from the Aspen Health Region, including youth in schools and Friendship Centres, and at a symposium in Vermilion. We approached the adults through our project:

ATV AND SNOWMOBILE RELATED INJURIES IN YOUTH:

WHAT WE CAN TELL YOU ABOUT THE PROBLEM...AND WHAT YOU CAN TELL US ABOUT THE SOLUTION

These were sessions designed to increase awareness of the stats, expose people to the positions advocated by various organizations on ATV use in youth, and engage the community in trying to solve the youth injury problem. 75% of the adults were themselves riders of ATVs or snowmobiles. The sessions were designed to increase knowledge and awareness, and participants did just that. These lively and interactive sessions continue to be rated very highly by participants as an eye-opening experience on topics fraught with mythology, and a great way to open up the dialogue on issues that are very difficult to face, such as:

the staggering stats on ATV injuries in youth
how financial commitments affect judgment
complications of enforcing and modeling the use of proper gear
interactions amongst age, cognitive development, and parenting

We boiled down all of the inputs from these sessions, and what remained was a list of factors contributing to and an array of strategies to solve the problem of ATV and snowmobile injuries in youth. The two major problems these people identified were essential engineering issues and, more prominently, a complex social/cultural issue of misplaced risk-tolerance.

To address engineering of these machines and features of the world they are distributed into, the group identified several strategies. Amongst the most commonly expressed ideas were: using speed-governors or restricting engine size; giving free gear with purchase; and creating groomed, lighted, attractive, and policed trails. In general, there was very high support in this group of over 300 people for increasing policing and enforcement. There was also considerably high support for legislative changes such as mandatory licensing and use of approved, full-face helmets. For instance, on a scale of 0-10 where 10 means strongly agree with the statement that no one should ride an ATV without a helmet, the average level of agreement amongst adults after the presentation was 10. Participants also supported other restrictions to make it safer for young people (e.g., the average level of agreement for no passengers unless the manufacturer specifies was 8 out of 10). Finally, amongst the 300 adults surveyed, the average age deemed safe for driving ATVs was 16 years old — 94% of them said 16 or older.

To address the social aspects of risk-tolerance, the youth and adults proposed several strategies to change the paradigms and culture around these vehicles in order to reduce the staggering injury rates in youth. To elaborate, many of the people surveyed felt that risks were being taken largely because there is no fear of legal, financial, physical, or personal consequences. Much of this was attributed to factors like: a high disposable income; low awareness of injury rates, features, and impacts on people’s lives; and the natural risk-taking tendencies of older youth. To address social, emotional, and psychological factors, they proposed that we balance the need for fun with knowledge and understanding of risk, and curb the “red-neck attitudes”, the hubristic and emulous culture, and the insidious implication of alcohol being needed to have fun in life. How to do all this? They proposed a vigorous campaign of enforcement with real consequences, training, education, and awareness, characterized by repetition over the lifespan (e.g., addressing kindergarten through to parents and grandparents), impact (sharing statistics and personal stories of consequences), and practical experience (i.e., training for real life, ranging from building the habit of clicking a seatbelt to being mentored and guided about how to enjoy an exhilirating life without drugs or alcohol or other negative high risks). Click here to request a copy of the final reports or information from our projects.