Warm weather starts the season of outdoor activities in Missouri, and off-road vehicle riding is a popular way to spend time for many families, including young children. The Missouri State Highway Patrol has long urged drivers and riders to make safety a priority to prevent serious injury or death during off-road riding.
So far this year in the patrol’s nine-county Troop G area there have been five fatalities, the last two of which were children, and whose deaths occurred while children were operating either an all-terrain vehicle or utility vehicle. The accidents happened a week apart on private properties near Willow Springs in Howell and in Oates in Reynolds County.
On May 12, the patrol reported, a westbound 2022 Massimo 500 ATV driven by a 9-year-old boy rolled over during a left turn, landing on a 13-year-old boy who was a passenger thrown from the vehicle. Neither boy was wearing a helmet, and the passenger was flown by Air Evac to Mercy Hospital in Springfield where he died of his injuries two days later, the patrol reported; the patrol does not publicize the identities of children in its reports due to state law protecting minors’ privacy.
The patrol reported on Sunday a northbound 2021 Yamaha Viking driven by an 11-year-old boy was reversing onto a mound of gravel and overturned, coming to rest on top of the driver, who also was not using a safety device.
The child was pronounced dead by a paramedic at the scene about 35 minutes after the accident, the patrol reported.
In Missouri, there is no legal age limit for driving an ATV or motorized bicycle, but the patrol recommends that parents and guardians are certain their children are prepared mentally and physically to drive such vehicles, and matched by size with the vehicle they are operating because it can vary widely.
Drivers of ATVs who are younger than 18 are also required by law to wear a helmet, and the patrol recommends a certified safety course for children before they drive an ATV.
In general, such vehicles are not to be driven on public roads or highway, with exceptions for farm and industrial use, and the operators of such vehicles must follow traffic laws, including the use of safety equipment like seat belts.
The Missouri Department of Social Services State Technical Assistance Team recommends that any child age 16 and younger be supervised when using an off-road vehicle, and that safety equipment including helmets and seat belts be used, noting that serious injuries are often caused by a rider being thrown from the vehicle into a fixed object like a tree, or thrown and then being pinned under the vehicle, even when there is a roll cage.
More than one rider on an ATV is not recommended, and parents and guardians should match the age and size of the child with the engine size on the vehicle. Additionally, a series of free off-road vehicle safety videos may be found at offroad-ed.com.
Recreational off-highway vehicles (ROVs) are defined by the the patrol as those designed and manufactured exclusively for off-highway use, with an unladen weight of 3,500 pounds or less and at least four tires designed for off-highway use.
All terrain vehicles (ATVs) are those that weigh 1,500 pounds or less, have at least three tires, and generally have a seat designed to be straddled by a driver and a handlebar for steering. Helmets are required for drivers younger than 18 years old, and the vehicles must not be operated on the highway at speeds greater than 30 mph, or in a careless manner that endangers the driver or property. No passengers are allowed on an ATV, except for farm purposes, unless a specific vehicle’s seat is designed to carry more than one passenger.
The vehicle must have a lighted headlamp and taillight, and a bicycle safety flag any time it is operated on a highway or street, and a reflective triangle must be displayed at a height at least 2 feet above the road.
The patrol further cautions that ATVs are designed to be ridden off-road, and driving on hard surfaces greatly affects handling and increases the likelihood of crashes. When operated on paved roads as allowed by law, drivers are reminded that quick accelerations, hard braking and minor steering changes will affect the ATV much differently than when operated off-road.
In 2023, there were 291 ATV fatalities nationwide, 27 UTV fatalities and 175 ROV fatalities, bringing the total among them to 498, including four fatalities in which a pedestrian was struck and one classified as "other.” The distinction between UTVs and ROVs was made based on the maximum operating speed, with UTVs having a maximum speed of 30 mph and ROVs with a maximum speed greater than 30 mph.
Both are typically described as side-by-sides or mules, but ROVs may have more seating and power and are promoted more for recreational off-roading than work purposes.
Almost 78% of the fatalities did not involve another vehicle and about 67% happened on roads, with rollovers being a significant factor in the single-vehicle fatalities, comprising a little over 59% of the total.
Drivers in fatality accidents were male at a rate of about 75%, and age 15 and younger in almost 19% of those accidents. Drivers age 16 to 19 reportedly were only involved in about 7% of fatalities, and drivers in the 20 through 59 age range accounted for 12% to 13%, with older drivers involved in lower percentages.
The report was compiled by the Consumer Federation of America's Off Highway Vehicle Safety Coalition based on information gathered from news reports, game or natural resource crash investigations, state crash investigations, and data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Occupational Safety and Health Administration and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Based on data collected beginning in 2013 through June 2023, Missouri had the third total highest fatalities with 267, in the 48 continental United States. Pennsylvania was the highest, with 324 total fatalities, followed by Texas with 307 fatalities. California and Wisconsin rounded out the top five, with 252 and 246 fatalities, respectively.
Fatality rates are consistently higher during the warmer months, from April through September, when riders are more likely to be using the vehicles recreationally.
