Nothing worse than tragedy and kids.......one could never imagine being in that situation as a parent. My condolences too their families...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img].

 

Roger that Houston. One of my biggest fears: now that I've opened the door to riding, what have I exposed them to? Will they do the same dumb things dad did? Will they not be so lucky?

I expect broken bones in the future from aggresive riding, but I'll have give no allowance for stupidity.

selector

 

I agree with what flyinbryan said, im not cold-hearted, but driving on the highway and with the news, letting everyone know what happened is just one more major reason to ban atvs.

 

they are cracking down on atvs here in chatham, i wanna go over to one of my neighbours house and punch him in the face, the moron basically started it, he rides on the road no plate no helmet, then they called the cops on him. me and my other neighbours have been getting the blame its simply pathetic how one idiot can screw up fun for us....not towards the kids on the quad although it was very rediculous having 5 on it...

 

The parents are to blame, they should charge them with child endangerment. I know as parents we cant be every where all the time, but an atv is no toy and I keep the keys to all the quads. My son does not have access to the atv without my supervision.

It all boils down to good parenting, and I am sorry for their loss, but maybe they should not be having kids in the first place.

This may come off as mean, but if you are a parent watch your kids, I have had to stop and help kids in the dunes more then once and I always look for the parents and usually they are never around. Come on people take some responsibility.

Off my soap box now.

 

Such a tragedy[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] Unless steps are taken in the right direction this will become a even more common type of news story to run on TV and read in the newspaper. Of course the knee jerk (liberal) reaction to situations like this is to blame anything and everything else, when in actuallity blame should rest on the individual(s). As our sport becomes more popular and riding areas become less aviable, there will be a rise of stupid behavior performed by people on ATVs. I could write another 1000 words on this subject, it just pi$$e$ me off to see such stupid people ruinning our sport, and these are not just stupid people they are quality stupid! I was loading up the quad after a good days ride and looked up to see a guy come down the road probably doing about 35-40 mph on a blaster with his 2 daughters on the same machine, I mean this guy had 1 daughter on the back while he drove and the other one perched up on the handle bars....OMG, yes the handle bars......she had this spooked look on her face like she really did not want to be riding that way. The only one wearing a helmet was the girl on the handle bars, I guess that was this dumba$$ fathers reasoning.....well honey since you are riding the handle bars you get to wear the helmet. Me and my buddy just looked at each other and shoock our heads. I could go on and on about this subject, but I want to just say Im to the point where I would support my State passing some mandatory laws to help curb some of the stupidity I see each time I go riding.
Laws like:
1. Mandatory helments...no ifs, ands, or buts......if you dont have a helment on you get a ticket.

2. No 2 up riding on an ATV, unless its speciffically made for it.

3. No riding on paved streets, period. When I lived on an Air Force Base it was the law that you had to walk your ATV/dirtbike across the street.....we never had any accidents from cars hitting an ATV.

4. Drinking and driving laws should apply, just as if you are driving an automobile.

I think this would be a step in the right direction for our sport, and to secure its longevity for the future.
What more States also need to do is address our land use issue, I mean we are a continuing growing sport and we NEED more riding areas to accomadate the larger numbers of people, give us more quality areas to ride. Where I live there are no State parks to ride at, Alabama does not care about their ATV enthusiast.
Ok I will now get off my "soap box", or wait maybe more of us need to get on our soap boxes and talk to people about our sport and the responsibility that comes with it.
My prayers to the families who lost their children, God Bless their souls

 

My thoughts go out to the families involved, its always devastating losing someone in such a tragic way, no matter who's to blame. Now, those children should have never been put into that position. It was 9:00 P.M at night! Where were the parents at? 6 kids on a quad? Doesn't take much common sense to figure out that you're just asking for trouble riding like that! As for the driver of the vehicle, if she wasn't intoxicated, there's not much that can be done to her, but if she was, then I hope they prosecute her to the fullest extent! Remember, if she wouldn't of hit them, she would have probably hit the next driver coming down the road. Sad, yet frustrating at the same time.

 

i agree with most of you this is a very sad event i feel sorry for all involved but there is no reason why those kids should have been there in the first place. they will probably get the driver for vehicular manslaughter regardless if she was drunk or not because she went left of center which constitutes breaking the law tat is if i understood the story right. regardless its a very sad situation. the driver & the parents will have to live the rest of thier lives with this on there concience that is something i dont ever want to experience my thoughts & prayers go out to all involved

 

Tuesday September 23, 2003 9:19 AM


By ELLIOTT MINOR

Associated Press Writer

DOUGLAS, Ga. (AP) - Volunteer firefighter David Varnedore rushed to the scene of a car accident prepared to help strangers in need. Then he came across the body of his own son. And then the body of his elder daughter.

Varnedore's two children were among five youngsters killed Saturday night when a car on a curving road struck an all-terrain vehicle the kids had crowded onto during a birthday party. A sixth child was critically injured.

When Varnedore got to the scene, his son Dustin, 11, was lying face down in a pool of blood. ``There was no hope for him,'' Varnedore recalled Monday, gasping with emotion between every word.

A few feet away, Varnedore found his daughter, Kayla, 13. ``My daughter was laying face up and I did CPR on her to no avail,'' said Varnedore, who lives only a mile away.

The other victims were Lindsay Joiner, 13 of Douglas; Courtney Arsenault, 10, of Alma; and the ATV's driver, Coranne Megan Nelson, 14. Another partygoer, Heather Bass, 13, was listed in critical condition Monday.

The car's driver, Amanda Michelle Troupe, 29, of Ambrose, could face charges, investigators said. They were awaiting the results of blood tests on whether she had been drinking.

Troupe, whose car crossed the center line before hitting the four-wheeler, was injured in the crash, but her condition was not immediately disclosed. Two other people in the car suffered minor injuries, police said.

Residents of the rural area said the children had attended Nelson's birthday party and decided to celebrate afterward by going for a ride on her ATV.

The off-road vehicle was built for one adult rider, said Gordy Wright, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Public Safety. None of the youngsters was wearing a helmet and Nelson should not have been driving the vehicle on a public road.

``It's just an awful tragedy,'' said Mayor Max Lockwood. ``All the families hope this leads to a better understanding of safety. The kids were in a rural neighborhood, and children just like to hop on those things and ride around in the country.''

Varnedore returned to the scene Monday afternoon with his parents, Carol and David Varnedore Sr. About a dozen others gathered there to mourn the young victims.

Dots of orange paint, left by the accident investigators, traced the car's skid marks and blue flags marked the spots where bodies were found. Painted orange circles showed where the car hit the ATV and where key parts of the vehicles had landed.

``You see that spot of blood? That was my son,'' said the 30-year-old truck driver who became a volunteer firefighter when he was 16. ``You see this spot of orange paint? That was my daughter.''

Before hurrying home to console his wife and to be with their remaining child, a 2-year-old daughter, Varnedore said the mangled bodies he saw in the ditch made him throw up.

``I won't even tell you what I saw,'' he said.

The ditch and roadside were littered for about 75 yards with bits of clothing, including a blue and gray tennis shoe, a cloth ponytail holder, a baseball cap and the car's badly mangled front bumper.

The impact of the collision along the two-lane road knocked some candy the young victims had gotten at the party from their pockets and left it scattered along the road.

The accident occurred on a road that separates Coffee and Irwin counties, about 10 miles northwest of Douglas, officials said. The collision happened on a road bordered on one side by forest and the other by pasture.

Donna Reynolds, a safety specialist with the Georgia Farm Bureau, said she often sees children and adults riding ATVs on roads. ``People are riding ATVs everywhere and people look at them as a toy,'' she said. ``They are not toys. Period.''

At West Coffee Middle School, which four of the children attended, counselors went into classrooms Monday to talk to students. The pupils wrote condolence cards to the families.

^---

On the Net:

ATV Safety Institute: http://www.atvsafety.org/index9.html




http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/s...180707,00.html

 

found this in another article.