If you don’t want to be stuck looking for ATV accident treatment in Atlanta, you need to follow the rules about how to ride a quad.
It’s because ATV’s are big, heavy and behave like a rock with a seat when they’re falling end over end. Your ATV is kind of like a ball that doesn’t bounce.
It rolls.
Jeeps have roll cages. ATV’s don’t. They can pin their riders and break them underneath as they topple down a hill.
Chiropractic Tips for Safe ATV Use
Their newer, more conservative cousin, the UTV comes with belts and a canopy. While riders say they can be just as fun as an ATV, they’re notably safer.
Protective Clothing Is A Must
You think you don’t need a helmet riding one of these monsters because you feel so secure perched between the four fenders, with all the control and none of the balancing required by the dirt-bike.
But bikes don’t kill you quickly as quads do.
Motorcycles slide out from under people, and when they do impact your body, the amount of damage is less than what’s caused by ATV’s, which roll while you’re still sitting on them.
And they can weigh hundreds of pounds.
So the first tip is to wear protective clothing. Not enough people do. Of those individuals who were killed driving an ATV in 2012, guess what percent of them wore a helmet…
…8 percent, which means 92% of the people who died because of an ATV crash did not wear a helmet. Imagine… 800 people will die this year on an ATV (the four wheelers, not three wheelers), and accidents will number 130,000.
This is the clothing that you need, so you’re not filed with statistics:
- Helmet, which is often required by law.
- Goggles, which keep your eyes protected from flying bits of the trail and work better than glasses because they stay on your face.
- Gloves, which protect your hands and can help you press the accelerator without fatigue in those ATV’s that use a thumb depress throttle.
- Riding boots, which protect your legs and feet from flying debris.
- Chest and Shoulder armor, often overlooked, keep you from being crushed if your ATV lands on top of you.
- Leg Armor, it helps you stay out of harm’s path when the passing branches are threatening to flay your skin. While dressing fully can be a pain, it also keeps you in a single piece and protects you from the elements.
Choosing A Safe ATV That Helps Prevent Accidents
There are a lot of ATV’s to choose from.
When children are riding, they need to be matched to the machine that is built for them. The smallest ATV’s are 50cc, going up to about 125cc. Then there are sport and utility ATV’s, which reach up to 750ccs.
Don’t overestimate what you’re capable of handling. While it may seem that the ATV is going to drive itself, it requires you to lean into turns and compensate for elevation changes in four directions. If you’re driving on the side of a hill, you must lean into the tilt, as you would while riding a bicycle or a motorcycle.
Many young people either can’t do this, or panic when the speed or the angle of attack get out of control. See the ATV Safety Institute for more info.
Aside from age limits, training, and oversight, this issue also makes getting an ATV that matches your weight important – so you can accurately control the vehicle.
Think about it:
An automatic ATV can weigh over 600 pounds – it should give us pause before letting just anybody on for a ride – especially children.