Illinois Personal Injury Attorneys for ATV Accident Injuries

Serving Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, Will and McHenry Counties

All-Terrain Vehicle Accidents (ATV), Injuries and Fatalities-ATV Lawyers

ATV’s are a source of recreation throughout the United States.  Unfortunately, ATV injuries are very serious and pose a serious risk of injury, and even death, to young children. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the following recommendations should be followed with respect to children:

• No Passengers should be on an ATV
• Manufacturers should include seatbelts and roll bars on all ATV’s
• A Driver’s License should be a requirement to operate off road motorized vehicles (ORV) on Public lands.
• Children under the age of 16 should not operate off road motorized vehicles, including and not limited, to ATV’s, Personal Watercrafts, Snow Mobiles or Mini Bikes.

At the current time there is a uniform law being considered by many states, with respect to ATV’s. It is difficult however to fully assess the number of injuries caused by ATV’s since the only injuries reported are death or serious bodily injury.

Interestingly enough, reports of ATV related injuries in children under the age of 16 have more than doubled since 1995 to 2005, and actually over 40,000 children were treated in hospital emergency rooms, nationwide, in the year 2005 alone. Fatalities have also doubled with respect to children in the past ten years that ride ATV’s. In the year 2005, 120 deaths were reported.  Most children that ride ATV’s do not even use helmets.  Many times, ATV related injuries are caused by:

• A Crash
• A Rollover
• Not Following Proper Safety Procedures
• Ejection of the Driver or the Passenger

The rugged terrain that the vehicle rides upon is a major contributor of injury.  It is common for children to be ejected as a result of their size.  It must be noted that ATV injuries have cost society approximately 2 billion dollars to treat children alone, and children count for  one third of the injuries caused by ATV’s. A national safety standard would likely reduce these injuries significantly.

Contact Our Law Offices for ATV Injury Accidents

If you have a question regarding an ATV injury, please contact the injury attorneys at Newland & Newland, LLP. We can also represent those injured on snow mobiles. Call us today to schedule a free initial consultation.