Just thought I'd describe a serious accident I had this weekend. A female friend and I were leaving my camp. There is a steep hill we often walk up, but for some reason she remained on the ATV with me. I lost traction, started to roll back, and stabbed the brake. The front end came up so fast that I could not do anything else. She flew off downhill, I landed on top of her, and just managed to deflect the bike with my feet. She sustained a fractured rib, bruising around the heart, torn knee ligaments, and a sprained shoulder. I was unhurt. We were both wearing helmets. Could have been a lot worse!
Quite often I view pictures here that show people riding double with no helmets. I know now that I will not ride anyone double on a steep hill, or ever ride without a helmet. Often we need a close call to remind us of the hazards of this sport.
Safe riding!

 

Not to sound like a smart-a$$, and i know most of us have ridden double( or dare i say triple or even quad) at some point in time, but its accidents such as yours that prompts all atv manufactures to put that big ole " ABSOLUTELY NO PASSENGERS" sticker on their quads. Consider yourself lucky :-]

 

I ride double quite often with my girlfriend, but when doing so I ride much less aggressive. Deep mud holes, steep hills and tough sections are all evaluated before plunging in. There are many times she will dismount and walk the obstacle. To ride double safely you must be extra careful at all times. Although we have been talking more about getting a smaller quad for her to ride on due to the fact riding double can be a real pain in the a$$. Also I purchased a rear seat and pegs for her.

 

I am glad your okay, and hope that the one you were riding with is feeling better, sorry to hear of your accident. My husband and I ride double all the time, on hills and things also, and one time we almost flipped it, it was coming up off the ground, but me managed to get it to not flip somehow, i assume it was from our weight shift, but we were unhurt, and didn't flip the atv all the way either, so i think we were lucky! I am ALWAYS afraid of flipping one, after that i was SCARED to go down a steep hill double(since that's how it happened), and a lil nervous of riding double anyways. So yea, if you do ride double, be carefull as possible, and try to be protected!

 

thats why we have 3 quads now , wife said if Im going to wreck Ill do it myself , went and got her a quad the next day , I nearly filped twice in one day with her on with me , and it was not a vey bad place at all in the trail , those are the ones that get you the fastest the ones youve crossed a hundrent times , then one day it happens , bam it done and over before you know it , if you blessed no one gets hurt , if your not it can be bad , you never know ,

chunky

 

Well, at least your girlfriend will let you buy another quad now, right? (for her, that is...)

 

Longlake:

Sorry to hear of your accident... I hope she's okay. My sister and I ride on mine and I'm scared to death of flipping it. Riding double is dangerous in two ways: first, the center of gravity is higher and you cannot control the balance of the quad quite as well; and second, once it starts to go over, it is a lot more difficult for two people to perform an emergency dismount than it is for just one. Riding double is safe when you do it right, but you have to be smart and avoid the difficult stuff. Glad to hear it wasn't worse and I hope we all can learn from close calls like that.

Matt