Safety practices critical when youth are operating ATVs, says NDSU Extension official

JAMESTOWN — Young people are often helping on the farm, says Angie Johnson, NDSU Extension farm and ranch safety coordinator. And they may be using an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) to do some of their work, so there are some important considerations to using it safely, she said.

Taking a safety course, matching the machine to the youth’s size, wearing appropriate gear and riding without a passenger are all critical to operating an ATV safely, she said.

Johnson said 12- to 15-year-old youth who don’t have a driver’s license or a learner’s permit have to take an ATV safety certification class in order to be able to operate an ATV on land other than their own family’s private property.

NDSU Extension works closely with the North Dakota Department of Parks and Recreation, which offers the free off-highway vehicle (OHV) youth safety course, she said. The course is designed to help educate riders on how to safely operate OHVs when out riding, according to the department.

“Our team in Extension works with them exclusively, especially in the summer to partner and offer that ATV training during our (youth) farm safety camps,” Johnson said. “Oftentimes … these young people, they might get on a farm where they need to drive one of these machines, whether that’s for fencing purposes, rock picking, whatever the task is that they need to complete, usually oftentimes it may involve one of those machines.”

The safe driving course goes through how people use their bodies to operate an ATV safely, she said.

“The whole point of an ATV when you’re driving it is you shift your body’s weight,” Johnson said. “That’s how you manage turns, that’s how you manage climbing over rough terrain or, for example, if you’re driving over a log, it’s really using your body and its weight to be able to shift and lift that machine. So that’s what’s really awesome about that course is, it’s actually introducing kids how to properly drive and move with their machine.”

It’s important that young people operating an ATV are using one that matches their body size, Johnson said.

“Starting them out with a large adult machine is going to set up … that young person for failure because really they can’t control it as well because they don’t have the physical ability yet to be able to maintain a turn, especially going at high speeds,” she said.

Also important is for adults to be good role models of safety for their children, she said.

“I just can’t stress enough, take the time to have your child participate in a safety training and also be an advocate for wearing a helmet and wearing a helmet every time,” Johnson said. “... If we want people to really embrace protecting themselves, so embracing safety, that means we got to start developing those habits at a young age.”

Parents who encourage and require their child to wear a helmet when they’re driving should role model that behavior as well, she said.

“Then you’re practicing it as a team and that young person is really able to understand that, you know what, this is about everybody keeping everybody safe,” Johnson said. “They’re not just telling me to do it and not practicing it themselves. It’s really all about doing the right thing and making that smart decision. So role modeling good safety behavior is paramount to developing that habit into adulthood.”

The North Dakota Department of Transportation compiles statistics for off-highway vehicle crashes, fatalities and injuries, which include ATVs and snowmobiles. The most recent data on the NDDOT website, for the year 2021, reported 55 crashes, five fatalities and 59 injuries.

Johnson noted that not only farm and ranch families use ATVs.

“Farmers and ranchers and their families use them as a tool but then (we) also have other populations in North Dakota that use them as a recreation piece,” she said.

Young people should always wear a helmet while operating an ATV, Johnson said, whether it’s a quick drive to the mailbox and back or checking fence on rough terrain.

“That should be the standard ….,” she said because it can be difficult to recover from a traumatic brain injury from an ATV-related incident.

Appropriate gear also includes shoes, clothing and eye/face protection. It’s important to wear good boots and pants to protect skin from getting burned by the machine’s engine, she said. Having some type of eye protection or a wind shield can prevent rocks or other debris from hitting your face. Even rain can feel sharp like glass when driving, she said.

Johnson recalls an injury she sustained when she wasn’t using eye protection.

“I had a really bad incident when I was a young person,” she said. “I almost lost sight in my eye due to being hit by a wasp as I was driving my ATV. I didn’t have goggles on …”

Not only is appropriate gear important, but the equipment young people use should be updated when necessary.

“… it may sound like a nuisance to have to buy another helmet again, but that’s just part of being a young person and growing is you’ve got to adapt and make sure you have the right size,” Johnson said.

When the ATV isn’t in use, remove the keys, she added.

“Don’t leave the keys in the machine,” Johnson said. “... that’s just a recipe for something bad to happen.”

Johnson said there should be no passengers on an ATV, whether it’s a youth operating one or an adult.

“... when you look at an ATV, especially … what I would classify as an adult-size ATV, if you’ve ever looked at the seat, it actually, the seat looks really big,” she said. “The seat looks like it was actually designed for two people but the reality is, it’s not. That seat is large because it needs to be able to allow the driver to shift their body back and forth and to the side. And that’s, again, what helps you drive and operate that machine through rough terrain. And so I can’t stress that enough is that ATVs, they are not designed for two riders.”

Johnson said excessively high speeds aren’t needed when driving an ATV for farm-related tasks or recreation.

“We have to remember the word ATV stands for all-terrain vehicle and so when we’re operating on different terrains, speed can just really, it just exemplifies how fast something bad can happen is when we’re traveling too fast through that rough terrain,” she said.

Driving slower helps ensure you can react, she said.

“If you’re going too fast, we just can’t react enough to stop before something bad happens,” she said.

Johnson said ATVs are not designed for highway use.

“The tread is just so much bigger,” she said. “... Oftentimes, you’ll see them on a gravel road or on paved highway … they’re designed to go in different kinds of terrain. They’re designed to grip, that’s why we’ve got the excessively grip tires and so they can’t grip well on highway and gravel surfaces especially going at high speeds.”

It’s important to stay off public roadways, she said.

“We have to remember we don’t have blinkers. We don’t have turn signals,” Johnson said. “There’s no rear-view mirrors on our ATVS. Our UTVs are a little bit different. They’ve got mirror systems installed and so that changes things a little bit. But for our ATVs, they’re just not designed for on-highway use.”

Johnson noted people have to be licensed to drive on a public road and abide by speed limits, but said she doesn’t want to see those machines driving that fast.

“If they’re going that fast, that means their ability to control that machine has reduced,” she said. “So If you need to turn and you’re going 55 miles an hour on gravel or pavement, you can’t react fast enough and your machine does not have that ability to grip on that surface so that really increases your chance and your risk of rolling that machine. So that’s why I’m not an advocate for driving ATVs on public roadways, A, because you got to be licensed in order to do it but B, you’ve got to be able to keep up with the traffic conditions …You’re better off not taking that machine on those road surfaces just because it’s not designed or meant for those road surfaces.”

For information on laws related to OHVs, visit North Dakota Parks and Recreation at https://bit.ly/3qy3kZA

Johnson said communication during harvest is really important. It’s about knowing whether young people are helping with that harvest or just getting home after school and wanting to go for a drive. Communicating can be as simple as just letting people know where everyone is going to be, she said.

“Dad, grandma, grandpa, uncle, they’re going to be driving semi through the yard many, many times tonight with loads of grain so … these next few days aren’t going to be safe days to drive the ATV in the yard,” she said as an example.

She said just communicating together on where it’s safe to drive and when is important as well as always letting someone know when you’re going to be driving.

“Simple communication,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, it’s just an awareness of helping each other out, identify when there’s risks such as excessive traffic on the road, or just in the driveway, in the yard. Taking the time to time to talk to each other and putting a plan together.”

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Safety practices critical when youth are operating ATVs, says NDSU Extension official