EDITORIAL: The Charleston Gazette: Tragic: ATVs on Roads: ATVs on Roads
Posted on: Saturday, 22 April 2006, 12:00 CDT
By The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.
Apr. 22--With springtime in West Virginia come rhododendon buds, redwood blossoms and ATV deaths. There have been at least five fatalities so far this month, as returning warmth brings out the hill-climbing buggies.
The Legislature is partly to blame. Since lawmakers made it legal to drive all-terrain vehicles on paved roads, for which they were not designed, each spring brings a shower of new deaths:
-- An 18-year-old Braxton County woman died Tuesday when two ATVs crashed on U.S. 19 near Flatwoods. Her sister was seriously injured. -- James Viney Jr., 28, of Alderson was killed April 15 when he lost control of his ATV on an unmarked road near Alderson. -- Thomas Lee Wright, 17, died at Summersville Memorial Hospital, after wrecking his ATV April 14 near Mount Nebo in Nicholas County. -- A 17-year-old Calhoun County teen died after his vehicle went over an embankment along a road on April 9.
A fifth person, Harold Ray May, 49, of Poca, was found in a creek with his vehicle on top of him April 11. He was not on a paved road.
West Virginia had 41 ATV-related deaths last year, the highest rate in the country. The Legislature caved in to ATV enthusiasts in 2004 and, despite warnings from manufacturers, allowed the vehicles on paved roads without centerlines and on the berms of roads with centerlines.
Kanawha County passed its own safety-conscious law, banning ATVs from paved roads -- and even from public gravel roads.
Wednesday, two people were seriously injured when their ATV collided with a minivan at the crest of a gravel road in Putnam County.
How many deaths until the Legislature fixes this dangerous law?
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.
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Source: The Charleston Gazette
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