Kentucky Injury Lawyer Blog

Kentucky leads, or is close to leading, the nation in some very unfortunate categories--smoking, obesity, illiteracy. We can now add ATV deaths to that list. Kentucky leads the nation in ATV deaths.

Last week was a particularly deadly week for ATVs in the Commonwealth. Kentucky State Police say four of the 15 people killed in motor vehicle crashes last week were on all-terrain vehicles.

Kentucky State Police compiled accident reports from last week and four people were killed on ATVs in Calloway, Floyd, Muhlenberg and Pike counties (Kentucky) between September 8 and September 13, 2009. Thus far in 2009, there have been 14 fatalities involving ATVs.

ATVs are particularly dangerous when it comes to children. Over the past two decades, 105 Kentucky children have died in ATV crashes, and many thousands more sustained serious injuries. In the past 5 years alone, more than 40 Kentucky children have died in ATV accidents.

One factor in ATV injuries and deaths is failure to follow Kentucky law pertaining to ATV use. Here are the relevant rules for ATV use in Kentucky:

All riders (operator and passengers) 16 or over on public property must wear a helmet, except those using the ATV for agricultural or business purposes.

All riders (operators and passengers) under age 16 must wear helmets.

No one under 12 may operate an ATV over 70 cc in engine size.

No one under 16 may operate an ATV over 90 cc in engine size.

No one under 16 may operate an ATV without parental supervision.

ATV use on public roads or highways is prohibited, except to cross these roads or for agricultural use.

For more on ATV safety in Kentucky, visit this link: http://www.atvsafety.gov/state/kentucky.html.

Shawn Cantley, a Kentucky lawyer who handles injury and wrongful death cases relating to defective products, said: "It's obviously very important to follow all safety guidelines and state laws when using an ATV, but to blame all ATV injuries and deaths on misuse by the rider would be to completely ignore mounting evidence of design defects which make many ATVs unreasonably and unnecessarily unsafe."

Many of these ATVs are unbelievably susceptible to rollovers, and they provide very little, if any, protection for the driver in the event of a rollover. (Wearing a helmet is probably not going to do much to protect you if a 600 pound ATV lands on you.) For example, some ATVs are intentionally designed with a narrow wheel-base so they can easily fit into even small pickups even though the manufacturer knows that this is unsafe and will make the ATV more susceptible to deadly rollovers.

One of the worst examples is the Yamaha Rhino ATV. There have been hundreds of lawsuits filed against Yamaha for serious injuries and deaths caused by this ATV. The lawsuits allege, among other things that Yamaha failed to make certain design changes which could have made the vehicles substantially safer, and provided inadequate warnings to riders about the risk of serious and debilitating injuries from riding the four-wheel ATV.

Anyone wishing more information relating to ATV accidents can contact Shawn Cantley by phone (502-587-2002) or by email (shawn@bccjlaw.com).