my son was to big for a 50. so we bought him a 80cc.we plan on doing trail riding if we get caught can we get in trouble.or is it pretty much ride at your own risk.

 

I don't think you can get in trouble. The age "guidelines" expired at the beginning of this this year, and even when they were still in place I don't think you could get in trouble.

 

The deal with the age guidlelines is this:

It isn't "illegal" for you to let a 6 year old ride an 80 or 90 or 100, but, if the child gets seriously injured,
and a hospital visit or doctors visit is required, you can be charge with child endangerment, and other
charges, should some busy-body social worker get wind of the injuries and the fact that he was on a
quad that was over his age limit. If the child goes to a hospital, DO NOT tell them he was injured on
an ATV. Do so and you can bet there will be repercusions.

EVen though they expired, you can still be so charged.

 

Woodsrunner - Have you had some firsthand experience with this? I am not asking to be critical but am really curious as to if you have actually seen this happen.

While I know that someone can be charged with almost anything, for a parent to be held liable (beyond the scope of their child getting injured of course) would take proving negligence on their part. Even when in effect, the CPSC rulings never made it illegal for a child to ride an ATV. The rulings prohibited the manufactures from selling an ATV with the knowledge that it would be ridden by a child. A subtle distinction but an important one - The directive to keep kids off ATV's was aimed at the manufactures to force them to be liable if they sold an ATV to a kid - in essence, if the manufactures and dealers follow the CPSC guidelines, then they would not be held liable in the event of a child injured while riding an oversize ATV. This limiting of liability to the manufactures is one reason why most still adhear to the CPSC guidelines (Which I *think* expired in '98, not last year).

I'm not saying that some "busy-body social worker" might not want to make a case out of a kids ATV injury. What I am saying is that say in my case - Where I have a 7 year old riding an LT80, a 10 year old on a TRX90 and a 12 year old on an Ozark, that someone will need a lot more ammo than an old CPSC recommendation to win a negligence lawsuit. (not that they couldn't try). True, ATVing can be a dangerous sport. As a responsible parent I make sure that my children are properly trained - with all our kids, we started them on restricted bikes in the yard - always supervised. As they gained skills, they had more and more freedom to ride IN THE YARD. None of my kids hit the trails with less than one season's "yard" experience. Once on the trails, they always ride 'in the saddle', with adult riders in front and in back of the line, all our kids have voice activated radios and of course, all wear safety gear.

I feel differently about those parents who plop little jr on the seat of a Raptor and tell them where the throttle is, that's a different story and that is negligence. For the rest of us, teaching our children to safely operate ATV's is no more illegal than teaching them to safely waterski, or rock climb or even to participate in team sports. All these can be dangerous and do cause injuries to kids.

Sorry if this is a rant, with three children all in "violation" of the defunct guidelines, this issue is near and dear to me.

hp703 - One thing you do need to do is check the rules of the areas where you are riding. Some states have adopted laws for kids ages vs ATV size and some private riding areas have done the same. If your riding area will not let your child ride an 80 on their trails, then you will have to go elsewhere.

Jaybee

 

Yes! A friend and his wife was charged in such a case in 2002. They were tried and convicted of child
endangerment, negligence, and willful disregard pertaining to a childs' welfare. Both of their kids were
taken away, for a period of 6 months, while they attended training and parenting classes. A fine of
$2000 and court costs was also levied. Both their quads were removed from the home until such time
as all the kids were of a recomended age to drive them. These kids were 10 and 11, so the quads will
be gone a long time. The 11 year old was driving a 100 cc when he hit a block retaining wall and cracked
his skull.

The prosecutor argued that the parents willfully disregarded the childs welfare by allowing him to
ride an ATV that was outside the accepted power level for his age group. The SPSC guidelines were
used to demonstrate the acceptable norm.

There are also about 2 dozen other cases across the country of the the same, mostly in NY and CA.

 

Interesting. Thanks for clarifying. One question - Was the 11 year old wearing a helmet?

Jaybee

 

Yes, the helmet split on impact.

 

it all comes back city people with their total disreguard for personal freedom and what the USA is all about. Im 18 and live in a farmer town in CT but i go to a prep school a few towns over. Most of the youth of my generation are useless piles of crap. they have no respect for what people shed blood for, our freedom. They think when anything goes wrong they can fix it with a pill, surgery, or a lawyer. I try to tell them thats not how it works around here and they completely cant understand what im talking about. they talk about being tough guys and then calling the cops if they get in trouble. around here the cop that shows up is the person's uncle whom you called on. i know im rambling but people the place our country is turning into makes me so mad. as much as i love technology and such id rather have lived back in the 60s and 70s when people let kids be kids and parents do their job and if a kid split their scull that was life and people moved on with it. did you all wear helmets when you were kids on your bikes? did you have antibacterial soap, you rode int he back of pickup trucks and somehow your still alive. If it aint broke dont fix it!

 

Its gunna get worse before it gets better to dude. That is what the country is comming to. Don't let anyone hear u fart-they will sue you for poluting the air they have to breath. And if it makes a noise-sue for damaging there hearing. City life-you can have it.

 

CTATV, that was great, especially coming from someone your age. I agree with you with almost everything you said. This country is becoming too **** and sue happy. But, you have to blame the lawyers for that, not completely, but for most of it. However, at the same time this country has come a long way from the '60's. Laws have been made to protect us from all sorts of things, most likely because an "extreme" case has happened or alot of cases have happened. But, there are alot of ambulance chasers (lawyers looking for someone to sue so they can get their 40% and get rich quick) out there that are makeing it even worse. I live in SC and there is a jacka$$ lawyer from somewhere up north (Sokolove or something like that) that advertises every week about something different. It is called mass tort and he has been reading too much John Grisham. (The King of Torts) Hope he doesn't sue me for mentioning a name that resembles his or something, I am broke and couldn't get anything anyway.