I’ll have to admit I haven’t been wearing a helmut when I ride my ATV, but that’s going to change. I’ll bet the snowmobiler who survived this collision was wearing one—I have never seen anyone riding a snowmobile who didn’t have a helmut. But, I think another problem with this accident was being on a snowmobile trail with an ATV. You have to stay in middle of the trail where the snow is packed. Otherwise, you get stuck a lot if the snow is deep along the edges of the trail, and that’s no fun. Then, if you come to the crest of a hill and a snowmobile is coming at you at 50 mph, it’s lights out for both of you. Also, those new 4-stoke sleds are much quieter than the older 2-strokers, which you can often hear coming. If you are going to ride an ATV on a snowmobile trail, it is probably safer to go at night when you can see headlights over the crest of a hill.

 

sounds more like he made a poor decision,,,,,caused an accident,,,,,and died

I seem to remember the day when people thought ATCs killed people too.

same thing with guns

 

cousin was killed right inside the polaris industry plant he was an electritian there. driving an atv hit a bad bump got throwen over the handlebars and atv landed on his head and killed him. now it is mandatory that anyone driving an atv of polaris's in the plant or outside must wear a helmit or suffer immediate termination. i just wish that it went into effect before he was killed he was a great man and i feel privaleged to have knowen him.

 

It is impossible to tell if anyone would have lived wearing a helmet... but statistically speaking, wearing safety gear can significantly increase your chances. Each piece of gear will add to that margin too... the real danger is to get all the gear and then feel you are indestructable. That part of human physiology doesn't change with gear. A helmet might safe the brain bucket, but cause you to break your neck... cause and effect...

I agree with the comment about making a bad choice. Speed is as much a part of snowmobiling as it is in ATV riding. I can't say for sure why this happened, and I don't know the actual mechanics of the crash, I do wonder if it was on a straight line or a blind corner though. Whether lights were being used on both machines etc. The subject of lights being used in daytime is a good subject for debate. One thing that many forget is that lights serve two purposes. One to see with, the other is to be seen. We sometimes forget the second part.

Also, if they met on a blind corner, common sense would have told most of us to slow down as you go around it... but the adrenaline rush is telling us to do a mondo broadslide around it.

Then there is the subject of stopping on the snow... Neither machine type is going to stop on a dime. I haven't been on a snowmobile for nearly 30 years now, and I suspect they stop a lot better than they used to, but still, the laws of physics given the properties of snow and ice, and the act of stopping is going to be marginal at best for either machine. Ditto for quick reaction steering.

Any way, we need to put safety first in our training...and responsible riding... hammer it over and over... Just like the smart people say, there are consequences to everything we do. Sometimes they are not so nice....

 

I always ride w/ my light on..

Makes it that much easier to remember to turn it on when it starts to get late.

 

Deep laker, I suspect it might be because the snowmobile is lower to the ground, and has a lot more mass in front of the rider than an ATV. Plus a windshield of some type. Chances are the ATV rider was unable to stay with his machine on impact. We tend to go over the bars when the quad comes to a sudden stop like that. Not sure if snowmobile would outweigh his quad.. but there is a chance that played a part as well.

Glad to hear you are going to wear a helmet now.... Smart move.

 

I just have a hard time believing that If I can't convince somebody to turn on their fricking lights.....how in the heck am I ever going to convince them to wear a helmet?

And if this is true...when does the standardized intelligence test come in to play for anyone desiring to swing a leg over anything besides a bicycle?

If we can't get past either one of these two simple issues and start weeding out those who just don't "get it"....there is no way in heck we will ever be able to tackle the bigger problems on our plate while toting this kind of baggage (we've wasted so much time even "talking" about this crap that it is truly pitiful).

Yet that's what you get when you let the lowest common denominator in any sport hold up the bus for the rest.

 

I think I know where you are going with this... not sure if increased fines, and new laws requiring safety gear is the right answer, but we can sure build a case that it would make a difference. The problem is that even though you put stickers on the machines telling you to wear them, they are ignored. The other issue is that laws of this nature are handled at the state level, so getting all 50 states to act as one is pretty hard, considering the motorcycle industry fights that have resulted in mixed results.

I still think that increased focus on mandatory training and information availability are viable options. And forcing teh gray market manufacturers to get on board with safety training and following the same CPSC guidelines as the major brands.

Not sure I'd use that bicycle analogy though. Compaired to the numbers of bike accidents and deaths per year etc... ATV statistics are only scratching the surface in comparison.

 

[quote]
Originally posted by: Dragginbutt
"I think I know where you are going with this... not sure if increased fines, and new laws requiring safety gear is the right answer, but we can sure build a case that it would make a difference. The problem is that even though you put stickers on the machines telling you to wear them, they are ignored...".

If they are ignoring the stickers....then it's pretty darn hard to ignore the money flying out of their pocketbooks.

"....The other issue is that laws of this nature are handled at the state level, so getting all 50 states to act as one is pretty hard, considering the motorcycle industry fights that have resulted in mixed results....."

I think we are overestimating the problem here. Michigan has laws on the books (which I'm sure mirror many other states) which simply demand that you act like you've got the good sense God gave you when operating an atv. The problem is, <u>everybody</u> in this community is afraid to go into these places like WV., KY., TN., etc. and start pointing out that it is their complacency on these issues that will get OUR rights taken away from us. Why these consumer advocacy groups haven't swept in on these places and tried to paint these doubled up, helmetless riders as examples of the manner in which the rest of this country acts and is truly like...is beyond me! (and god <u>help us</u> if they ever figure this out[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img]).

"...still think that increased focus on mandatory training and information availability are viable options....."

Agreed, I just don't think the word "mandatory" means a darn thing if their isn't a "fine" big enough behind it that truly defines the word.

"....Not sure I'd use that bicycle analogy though. Compaired to the numbers of bike accidents and deaths per year etc... ATV statistics are only scratching the surface in comparison....."

Sorry for the confusion, I was just using the bike analogy to illustrate the fact that if you aren't intelligent enough to figure certain things out for yourself or have me/somebody else "explain" them to you....then maybe "a bicycle" should be the only conveyance you should be allowed to swing your leg over (at least 9 times out of 10 they don't blame 'the bike' for your mishap and you are most always <u>correctly</u> labeled as you should be).

 

That's to bad , we don't have a lot of ATV accidents here but we have a couple of people die everyweekend on snowmobiles.