ATV deaths expected to rise
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From Times Wire Services
At least 555 people -- including more than 100 children -- died in all-terrain vehicle accidents in 2006. Government safety officials expect the number to go much higher as they receive information from coroners and hospitals nationwide.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimated that an additional 146,600 people were treated in emergency rooms for ATV-related injuries -- more than a quarter of them children.
The industry contends it’s not the ATV but the driver that’s the problem.
“ATVs have never been shown to be an unsafe product, but there have been bad decisions made by people sitting on the seat,” said Mike Mount, a spokesman for the California-based Specialty Vehicle Institute of America.