ATV’s keep West Virginia No. 1

ATV’s continue to wrack up deaths and injuries in West Virginia, No. 1 nationally in deaths and serious injuries caused by ATV accidents. The latest happened in Rachel on Saturday night.

Howard Wingrove of Pennsylvania struck a guardrail on Sunshine Road at Blackshere and was thrown from the ATV. Wingrove is in stable condition in WVU’s Ruby Memorial Hospital.

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.

Like motorcyles, which my family rode for years (we had 4 at one time), ATVs are fun to ride, but you pay a price for carelessness or unexpected events.

Kathryn Toothman Crim, Class of 1950, and her mate, Doc Blevins, who own adjoining 40-acre properties in Farwell, Michigan, rode them for years and had plenty of fun but few broken bones or worse. Kathryn doesn’t ride her ATV any more, but she does bag deer on her property during hunting season.

Having five children, eight grandchildren and six-grandchildren hasn’t slowed Kathryn down much at all.