Madison, WITheir stories are heartbreaking: parents who have lost children in ATV rollover accidents. No matter how long ago the accident occurred, these parents deal with the grief every day of their lives. They wonder how the accident could have happened and despair that they should have done something, anything, differently to prevent the accident. Of course, they cannot go back in time and fix what has happened, but they all want to ensure that what they have gone through does not happen to another family.
It is easy enough in this day and age to simply focus on the statistics rather than the individual stories. The statistics themselves are bad enough; every year 40,000 children and teens are seriously injured and even killed in ATV rollover accidents in the US, according to Concerned Families for ATV Safety. That, in itself, should be startling enough to move people to change the way ATVs are designed and used.
But it is not, because it is too easy for ATV manufacturers to simply look at the statistics and blame the drivers of the ATVs for the fatal accidents. The manufacturers should be forced to look at the individual stories of ATV accident victims—the lives that were lost too early, the dreams that will never be fulfilled and the families that have been ripped apart by these terrible accidents.
Sometimes, ATV rollovers are the result of inexperience. But often the serious injuries could have been prevented with the use of a few safety features on the ATVs. For example, the inclusion of doors on the Yamaha Rhino might have prevented some youth from experiencing painful, and permanent, leg and arm injuries. And how much more would it have cost to install those doors on the Yamaha Rhino right from the start? Not a lot, but when the deaths of children are viewed only as statistics, rather than as individual tragedies, it is easy to say that the extra cost is not necessary.
Sadly, that means that youth are exposed to unnecessary risk when riding ATVs. With vehicles that tip over too easily and lack adequate safety features, the question must be asked: How can the ATV industry get away with manufacturing such potentially dangerous vehicles?
More and more parents are dealing with their grief by coming forward to share their stories, in the hope that other families will not have to go through what they went through. They are also filing lawsuits, realizing that simply learning about a child's death will not compel the ATV industry to design safer vehicles. They file their lawsuits hoping that the courts will hold the ATV manufacturers responsible for creating vehicles that tip over too easily, taking with them children's lives.
If you or someone you love has been injured in an ATV rollover, contact a lawyer to discuss your legal options.