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Abstract
Traditional all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) are designed for single riders. Although carrying passengers is a known risk factor for injury, how passengers contribute to ATV crashes remains poorly understood. To address this question, we performed a retrospective chart review of ATV crash victims at a U.S. trauma center (2002–2013). Of 537 cases, 20% were passengers or drivers with passengers. The odds of backward rollovers, falls/ejections, crashes on sloped terrain, and collisions with motorized vehicles were all significantly greater when passengers were present. In contrast, the odds of self-ejection or falls/ejections over the handlebars were significantly lower than falls/ejections to the side or rear, in crashes with multiple riders. Among all ejections, self-ejections had the lowest head and highest extremity injury scores and being ejected over the handlebars or to the rear resulted in worse head injury scores than being ejected to the side. In summary, our study found that passengers increased the odds of specific crash and injury mechanisms and that head and extremity injury severity varied by ejection type. Safety interventions including seat design changes that prevent carrying passengers, and a strict, well-enforced no-rider rule are needed to effectively prevent passenger–related deaths and injuries.
Highlights
Deaths and injuries due to all-terrain vehicle (ATV) crashes remain a significant public health concern
Our study found that crashes that occurred on sloped terrain were significantly more likely to have passengers on the vehicle than crashes on other terrains
We found that backward rollovers were 2.5 times more likely to involve a vehicle with passengers, as compared to those in rollovers in other directions
Summary
Deaths and injuries due to all-terrain vehicle (ATV) crashes remain a significant public health concern. A number of risk factors for ATV-related injury have been identified including younger age, being male, driving on roads, lack of helmet use, operating under the influence of drugs or alcohol, age-inappropriate vehicle size, and carrying passengers [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Despite strict warnings against multiple riders in operator manuals and on the ATVs themselves, carrying passengers appears to be a common behavior. In a study of Iowa adolescent students, over 90% who had been on an ATV reported having ridden with passengers [12].
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