Federal regulations paint an incomplete picture of the severity of injuries and deaths
By Daniela Molina, Rachel DePompa, Jill Riepenhoff and Geneva Smith
Published: May. 20, 2024 at 10:37 AM CDT
(InvestigateTV) — Kate Bruggenschmidt was 11 years old and weighed just 75 pounds when she climbed atop a 750-pound ATV for a joy ride with a friend.
It was the first – and final time – that Kate would drive an all-terrain vehicle. She and her friend both were fatally injured when the ATV tipped.
Neither was wearing a helmet. And neither, safety advocates say, was mature enough to handle the complexities of a massive machine.
No other product regulated by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has as many injuries and fatalities tied to it as ATVs – and the CPSC oversees some 15,000 categories of largely everyday-use items such as coffee pots, televisions, and toys.
Every year, according to estimates from the CPSC, ATVs are responsible for more than 100,000 trips to emergency rooms across the country.
But ATVs pose a particular issue for federal oversight because state and local jurisdictions often dictate the age of riders and the safety requirements needed. That has created a patchwork of regulation that leaves consumers vulnerable, according to an InvestigateTV analysis of federal data and state laws.
Kate’s mother, Ashlee Bruggenschmidt, soon learned that her home state of Indiana did not require that ATV riders wear helmets until after her daughter’s death on July 26, 2015.
That morning, her 11-year-old daughter Kate, a shy, straight-A student and an avid softball player, asked to go over to her teammate’s house in between games.
The plan thrilled both Bruggenschmidt and her husband.
“She was going to middle school into sixth grade, so we were happy that she was kind of branching out a little bit and wanting to go to a friend’s house. But little did we know we would send her to a friend’s house, and she would never come back,” Bruggneschmidt said.
Bruggneschmidt received a call no parent can prepare for.
“I thought she had been in a car accident,” Bruggenschmidt said. “An ATV crash never crossed my mind – we had no idea that she was riding an ATV or anything like that.”
Kate was driving an adult-sized ATV with one of her teammates on the back. Neither were wearing helmets. The ATV tipped over, and while the teammate had enough time to jump off the back, Kate did not.
She was killed instantly.
“She was on an adult-size ATV wearing no safety gear,” Bruggenschmidt said.
Bruggenschmidt didn’t know her daughter Kate would ever be on an ATV, much less driving one.
“ATVs were not our lifestyle. She was very, very, inexperienced. She had never driven an ATV before,” Bruggenschmidt said.
That crash changed the Bruggenschmidts’ lives forever. Following Kate’s death, her mother fought to change Indiana’s off-road vehicle child helmet law.
As of 2017, the state requires all children under 18 to wear a helmet while riding or driving ATVs on public and private lands. Anyone breaking the helmet law can be charged with a misdemeanor violation and a penalty of $500.
ATV laws across the country vary from state to state
The Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, first began regulating all-terrain vehicles in the 1980s.
The federal agency was tasked alongside ATV industry leaders with creating both voluntary and mandatory consumer product safety standards. Those standards were meant to be updated as the machines evolved.
In 2002, ATV safety advocates asked the CPSC to ban the sale of adult-size ATVs sold for the use of children under the age of 16. But the petition for the ban didn’t go very far.
Instead, the commission left states with ultimate jurisdiction over how and where these machines can be used, as well as any age restrictions.
But doctors, federal regulators, and even ATV manufacturers for years have all agreed on one premise: children should not ride or drive ATVs designed for adults.
Between 2016 and 2020, a CPSC report estimated around 140,000 children under the age of 16 ended up in emergency rooms for ATV-related injuries. That’s the equivalent of every child in the state of Wyoming going to an emergency room for this singular reason.
According to that same report, the CPSC estimated that number, 69,000 of those injured were younger than 12. Most were boys.
But, according to an InvestigateTV analysis of state laws, federal guidance recommending age limits for all-terrain vehicles – primarily based on engine size – has largely been ignored.
InvestigateTV found ATV laws across the country vary greatly. These laws, which in some locations are issued at the county level, typically establish registration requirements, speed, and age limits, as well as helmet requirements.
At least 40 states lack restrictions that would stop children younger than 16 from operating adult-sized ATVs, and 13 states have no age limit at all.
InvestigateTV also found nine states still don’t have helmet laws as safety requirements.
Laws in Texas and South Carolina allow children as young as six to drive all-terrain vehicles, with the former setting limits on the size of the ATV.
Some states, like Minnesota, allow children as young as 10 to ride ATVs as long as the child has previously taken a safety course.
Minnesota is also one of only a few states that allow all-terrain vehicles to be operated on public paved roads and highways. The state is home to Polaris and Arctic Cat, two of the largest manufacturers of all-terrain vehicles.
In at least 10 states, ATVs are completely prohibited from being used on roads.
‘It’s very confusing for a rider who wants to follow the rules’
Former Consumer Federation of America Legislative Director and General Counsel Rachel Weintraub said this “hodgepodge” of state laws regulating all-terrain vehicles creates confusion.
“It’s very confusing because there’s a warning on the vehicle that says, ‘Don’t do that,’” Weintraub said. “And yet the state, some states or some parts of the state, a jurisdiction, a municipality, a smaller entity within the state that could allow for road use. So, it’s very confusing for a rider who wants to follow the rules.”
In one of her first projects with the nonprofit organization, Weintraub worked to address children being injured in incidents involving all-terrain vehicles that were too large and powerful for them to safely operate.
Since 2013, the organization has collected the most current off-highway vehicle data, which includes ATV fatalities.
In 2023, the CFA tallied 291 ATV-related fatalities. Children under the age of 15 had the highest number of deaths of any age group, with 54.
The organization’s analysis identified Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Texas, and Wisconsin as having the most ATV-related fatalities in the country.
“We know what we need to do to make these vehicles safer for these numbers to go down dramatically, but it’s not in place yet,” Weintraub said. “We really need to think about the best ways to ensure that children are on vehicles that are the right size and powerfulness for them.”
According to CPSC, ATVs remain the most dangerous discretionary use product for children.
“ATVs and side by side (vehicles) together are responsible for the greatest number of deaths in our jurisdiction,” CSPC Commissioner Richard Trumka said.
InvestigateTV found the first all-terrain vehicle recall occurred in August of 2000. Since then, there have been a total of 270 recalls of these types of vehicles, as of Dec. 2023.
By comparison, since the CPSC issued its first-ever recall in June 1973, those involving ATVs have far outpaced more widely-used consumer products such as,
- Refrigerators, 29 recalls;
- Candles, 95 recalls;
- Cribs/bassinets/portable cribs (like pack-n-plays), 188 recalls.
Those are recalls that have occurred over the entirety of the CPSC’s 51-year existence - nearly three decades before the first ATV recall.
According to data collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from 2018 to 2022, there have been 1,602 deaths on ATVs.
In 2022, there were 455 deaths, an increase of more than 100 deaths from the year prior.
CSPC Commissioner Trumka, an ATV owner himself, said the agency is constantly updating its standards to protect families, but he does question if the standards have gone far enough to prevent deaths.
“I use these products. I wouldn’t want them going away at all, but I do want to make sure that if me and my child are on one, we are going to be safe,” Trumka said.
Safety precautions by doctors
For years the American Academy of Pediatrics has conducted research on the health threat all-terrain vehicles may have on the well-being of children and adolescents.
The organization recommends that children under the age of 16 should not drive ATVs.
Dr. Jeffrey Haynes, medical director of the pediatric trauma center at the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University, agreed.
“It comes down to children under 16 shouldn’t do it because of the lack of, or relative lack of judgment, neuromuscular coordination, split-second decision making on a machine that is top heavy, that can curve and flip at any point in time,” Haynes said.
He added, “don’t do it” is the first thought that comes to mind when he thinks of children on all-terrain vehicles.
“Unfortunately, a lot of these deaths occur in the field and therefore are not transported here, but we have had children come in with severe head injuries, chest injuries, and abdominal injuries that despite our best efforts, we cannot save their life,” Haynes said.
He said in his experience, most are injured in the head or neck because the rider wasn’t wearing a helmet.
Haynes strongly suggested parents who allow their children to ride ATVs wear helmets and have the proper gear. He also suggested completing an ATV safety training course.
The Specialty Vehicle Institute of America, a national, not-for-profit trade association representing manufacturers and distributors of ATVs provides safety courses on its site.
In a statement, SVIA told InvestigateTV:
“The Specialty Vehicle Institute of America and all our member companies are committed to rider safety and education – to helping all riders learn how to ride safely and responsibly. Our vehicles are part of American life, and are used by millions for agriculture, business, law enforcement, emergency response, military service, and outdoor enjoyment. SVIA offers free comprehensive training – both online and hands-on courses -- with every new vehicle purchased. We generate and promote safety content to communicate the importance of training. Among the messages we aggressively discuss on all of our channels are the Golden Rules of Riding:
1. Always wear a Department of Transportation (DOT) compliant helmet, goggles, long sleeves, long pants, over-the-ankle boots, and gloves
2. Never ride on paved roads except to cross when done safely and permitted by law – another vehicle could hit you. ATVs are designed to be operated off-highway.
3. Never ride under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
4. Never carry a passenger on a single-rider ATV and no more than one passenger on an ATV specifically designed for two people.
5. Ride an ATV that is right for your age.
6. Supervise riders younger than 16; ATVs are not toys.
7. Ride only on designated trails and at a safe speed.
8. Take a hands-on ATV RiderCourse and the free online eCourse. Visit ATVsafety.org”
For Ashlee Bruggenschimidt, her fight for ATV safety continues years after her daughter’s death.
In the seven years since Indiana enacted its helmet law, the state has only seen seven fatalities involving children, a significant decrease from the 29 it saw in the five years prior to the change.
“I would love to see that helmets were mandated nationwide,” Bruggenschmidt said. “Helmets do save lives.”
She has also helped build an accessible playground and established “Play for Kate,” a foundation in her daughter’s memory.
But her biggest hope is to continue educating families. As an elementary school administrator, she has worked with several agencies and hospitals to build an ATV safety robot – Safety Sarah and Safety Sam – that goes around and talks to kids in the community about ATV safety.
The robots wear helmets and appropriate safety gear on child-sized ATVs.
Despite her loss, she doesn’t want ATVs to be banned.
“I feel like ATVs are safe and they’re fun. I’m not anti-ATV I just want them to be driven safely,” she said.
Associate producer Charlie Roth contributed to the research in this story.
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