Another ATV victim flown to WVU’s Ruby Hospital

The latest in a long line of ATV victims in West Virginia was flown to Ruby Memorial Hospital (WVU Medical Center) Wednesday after a 10 p.m. accident on Braden Drive in Mannington.  

Two weeks ago Tristan, the grandson of Monongah High Alumni Association president Linda Lopez Gandy, Class of 1965, married to Jim Gandy, broke his leg in an ATV accident on Fairmont’s Chesapeake Road and was flown to Ruby.

West Virginia leads the nation in per-capita fatalities from ATV accidents. There have been 588 reported ATV deaths in West Virginia since 1982, including 66 to children under 16.

Kentucky and Pennsylvania have higher ATV death totals, but West Virginia is No. 1 in per-capita ATV deaths.

Two-thirds of West Virginia’s ATV crashes happen on public roads. Tourists tend to stick to the trails more.

250 died in West Virginia ATV accidents in 1999-2006, including 215 West Virginia residents.

From 2007 to 2011, 1,701 ATV riders died in crashes on public roads in the USA — about 340 a year. Two-thirds of all fatal ATV crashes occur on public or private roads.