In case you didn't see the recent article on MTR in the Louisville, Kentucky based Courier-Journal news paper on Saturday, November the 11th, we have a link to it here. Click here to see the Courier Journal Article
This article is actually the third in a series of articles / newscasts that have appeared or been broadcast in the Louisville media. The first broadcasts reported on a meeting that was held at the Prosecutors Office in Floyd County. This meeting was pulled together at the request of a mother whose 12 year old daughter died in an ATV related accident in Floyd County earlier in the year. All four area TV stations and the Courier-Journal all reported on the meeting. Present at the meeting were the Floyd County Prosecutor, a representative from the DNR, a state senator, a representative from the ATV Safety Institute, the child's mother and step-father, many of the child's family members and myself.
In my opinion, the news reports that followed that meeting did not really do justice to the request this mother was making and the reason for the meeting. The premise of the meeting was to discuss ATV safety as it relates to children. The mother had told me before the meeting that she was not working to ban ATV's, only to try and find ways to make them safer for children. I was invited by her to the meeting to represent local ATV riders. Several items were discussed during that meeting but two main topics kept coming up. They were 1)the lack of designated public ATV riding areas and the other was 2) the lack of rules in Indiana related to ATV use by children.
I think it is very important to note that this child's mother made the statement during the meeting that "the ATV did NOT kill my daughter. It was the lack of supervision, an ATV that was too big for her, 3 kids on one ATV, equipment not working correctly, no training...and a host of other things that went wrong". The reason this is important is that it demonstrates that the mother was sincere in her statement that she is NOT out to ban ATV's but only interested in making them safer for children.
The sad thing is that this did not come across in most of the news coverage. Once again ATV's were portrayed in the media as dangerous and uncontrolled. This is simply NOT true. In this case there were many factors that led to the unfortunate death of this beautiful little girl. The death of any child should always make us take pause and examine how things are done and what we can do better.
Which leads me to my next topic. Safety training and the lack of public ATV riding areas near us. These two items are actually linked. Many manufacturers will pay you to get trained when you buy a new ATV. Many will pay as much as $100. However, many of us do not take advantage of this training as we find it difficult to find areas close to home to train. Further, with the lack of public riding areas, there is no place for many of us to ride where safe behavior can be reinforced once taught. This is a real problem. Public riding areas have many advantages over private property. Trails are generally marked for difficulty and better maintained, safety equipment is generally required and unsafe riding is generally not allowed. These are just a few of the advantages.
The lack of local riding areas became a serious topic during this meeting and the state senator agreed to look into it.
Shortly after this meeting I received a call from the Courier-Journal wanting to do a follow up story on the lack of public ATV riding areas. Hence the article on MTR. However, the reported also told us that another article was in the works on ATV safety by another reporter that worked for the Courier-Journal. This "Safety" article was the second article that many of you saw. The article was titled something like "ATV critics call for stricter rules for ATV use". This article was yet another shot across the bow of ATV riders everywhere and did little to address how to go about working together to meet safety goals. The articles agenda did not seem to be one to promote ATV Saftey but to try and report on the lack of it. Disappointing.
ATV's have a real image problem and bad stories sell newspapers and tune viewers in to local TV news broadcasts. If we are going to change that perception we must be more active. Proactive training, pushing our views to the media, riding responsibly, contacting our state legislature, working to open new riding areas are just a few ways to do this.
I pushed hard in the original meeting to raise awareness as to the need to open local riding areas for ATV's to use. Local public riding areas would be safer and better controlled. It also gives us a place to hold training classes. The state senator from Indiana (Connie Sipes) agreed to look into it but she needs to know we support her efforts. The Courier-Journal also listened as evidenced by the third article that appeared on the front page of the Indiana section of the paper on Saturday, November 8th (the article on us).
The Courier-Journal ran an article on us to help get the word out that more public riding areas are needed. We tried very hard to work with them to get a positive ATV article and I think we achieved this and for that we are appreciative. The only disappointing thing was the 13 year olds picture without any safety gear (I am not sure where that picture came from).
Now for the easy part, what can YOU do to help. The answer is get involved. Get the word out. Contact your local papers and news stations and let them know you want to see more positive articles on ATV use. Send an email or write a letter to you state representative or senator and let them know you want MORE public riding areas. Contact the Harrison-Crawford state and Hoosier National forest and let them know you want the forests opened to ATV use. The time has come to get the word out. Please do your part to help.
We are working hard to get new riding areas opened and to change the perception of ATV's. Please continue to support those efforts by participating in the group and getting the word out. Thanks for listenting, Brian |
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