Injury Prevention Centre urges safety while riding ATVs
Posted May 18, 2019 5:27 pm.
CALGARY (660 NEWS) — The Injury Prevention Centre is urging people to be cautious of riding ATVs over the long weekend.
Every year in Alberta, around 14 people die from a quad rollover.
“People think all-terrain vehicle, I can ride it on all terrains. So going over stumps and rocks and bumps you’re going to topple and once it rolls it’s very difficult to roll it off, especially if it’s rolled on top of you,” said Dr. Bill Sevcik, chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Alberta.
To ride a quad safely you should:
Practice active riding
Ride the right sized quad
Don’t ride double
Consider adding an Operator Protection Device
“The most important thing is that you wear a helmet, you never drive impaired, alcohol or drugs, you’re not doing this at night and that you ride with a buddy. With respect to children, they need to be the right size and age to do this and everybody should be taking a safety course on safe all-terrain vehicle-quad riding before they actually take off into the great beyond, ” said Sevcik.
Dr. Sevcik adds May long is usually the start of trauma season as the weather warms up.
