Check out the general stats:

• Off-road vehicles cause hundreds of fatal crashes each year. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recorded 13,043 ATV deaths between 1982 and 2013 – an average of 622 deaths every year.
• Nearly one in four of those deaths involves a child under age 16. The CPSC’s numbers include 3,023 deaths of children under sixteen, or 23 percent of the total. This dwarfs the percentage of child deaths in highway motor vehicle accidents.
• In 2013 alone, 99,600 people were treated in emergency rooms for off-roading-related injuries. Twenty-five percent of those, or one in every four, involved injuries to children under age 16.
• Fifteen percent of those treated for ATV injuries in emergency departments are admitted to the hospital. The other 85 percent are released and treated on an outpatient basis.
• About one in three people injured in an off-road vehicle accident suffers a head or neck injury. Traumatic brain injuries, fractures, and whiplash accounted for about 29 percent of all off-road vehicle accidents in 2013.
• One in four people injured in an off-road vehicle accident will break at least one bone. Twenty-three percent of those seen for ATV-related injuries in emergency departments over the past several years wound up in the E.R. for a fracture.

For more info, the source is: https://www.rhllaw.com/2016/05/26/6-...oad-vehicle-a/

 

Those numbers sound like a lot when you don't compare them to the amount of people who are treated for injuries and are killed doing many other things. 500,000 people are treated in emergency rooms every year after falling off of ladders, should we require licenses to use a ladder? Those injuries cost us $24B a year.

I'm just not a fan of adding more Government entities to license people to take part in recreational activities off of public roads. If you look at what it takes to get a drivers license, its pathetic its so simple and easy. Same with boating licenses. I don't even think drivers licenses really make roads safer because so little training and testing is necessary, I have zero confidence that they will create a licensing process that would make anybody safer. It will just be another way to collect fees.

And yes, its risky. I come from rural West Virginia, ATV country and yeah people get hurt. I ain't putting my kids on an ATV. If you don't want to take the risk, don't participate in the activity. I don't see how a government issued license for $95 will help that.

 

My research showed the ladder injury (emergency room) rate at 164K/yr. Regardless, one usually only puts oneself at risk, so no, I wouldn't advocate for a ladder license. That said, nobody at my job could be on a ladder without first taking ladder safety training!

The DMV could handle the licensing without adding a new government entity. I'm not a fan of government regulation either, but I certainly see how it has resulted in saving hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lives by regulating the design and operation of motor vehicles.

Again, if others were mainly risking their own lives, as in skydiving or scuba-diving, I'm OK with letting people kill themselves. I just don't want them taking me or my loved ones with them!

 

How is the DMV equipped to give people an examination of their ability to safely drive a vehicle offroad? They aren't able to effectively train or assess the abilities of people driving on the road. Our drivers test here consists of a 3 point turn, backing up 100 feet, and driving in a straight line in a parking lot. Worthless.

Do you know people who are offroading enthusiasts? I know a lot of them being from a rural area. A "offroad test" simply would have told this guy he should have set the emergency brake. He knew that already, he simply made a mistake. Look at all the mistakes made by drivers of vehicles on roads desipte those drivers holding drivers licenses. It makes no difference. Nobody is driving an offroad vehicle like that on a trail like that without considerable experience offroading. People don't spend $50,000 on a dedicated offroading modified Jeep and go to Moab (thats not Moab, but its a good example) their first time out. That was not some guy who was doing that for the first time. Even experienced people make mistakes.

What are you and your loved ones doing on an offroad trail if you aren't participating in an offroad activity? If you don't feel safe around offroaders, stay away from offroading areas. People aren't driving offroad vehicles through hiking trails, etc. Simple. You would have had to ride into where they were in an offroad vehicle to be anywhere near where they are.

 

[QUOTE=SW17LS;10927788]How is the DMV equipped to give people an examination of their ability to safely drive a vehicle offroad?/QUOTE]
The DMV could simply require that off-roaders take a class and pass a test, which could be administered by a learning institution, public or private. I don't feel an offroad driver test is warranted. I think classroom instruction that harps on safety is called for, not unlike the safety training one needs in order to buy a handgun in CA. When I saw pictures of fatal accidents in my driver's training in H.S., it made me a lot more careful driver. If I was creating a curriculum for off-road training, I would focus on the statistics of off-road accidents and their causes, and then how one can prevent becoming a statistic!

[QUOTE=SW17LS;10927788]Do you know people who are offroading enthusiasts?...Even experienced people make mistakes./QUOTE]
Yes, I was an off-road enthusiast and knew many who participated in the sport. Granted, all people make mistakes. However, I have to believe that people who are competent enough to take a class and pass a test are less likely to make mistakes, or as many mistakes.

I'll assume you are speaking to the "proverbial you" rather than to me. One can be the best off-roader in the world, but if some dumb-f "forgets" to set his parking brake and sends his vehicle off a cliff and on top of one's vehicle, it's over Johnny! Shouldn't one be able to participate in a risky sport without being the victim of manslaughter?

I'll concede that licensing would only have a minor affect on the overall fatalities, but some is better than none. There is no magic bullet against human stupidity. When I first started off-roading, I would have benefited by receiving safety training. It's always best to not learn by one's mistakes when life and limb is at stake!

When I bought my first handgun, I already knew everything what was being taught to me, but I was happy to know that others who were buying their first handgun were being trained on basic handgun safety. If used correctly, guns are great for defending one's family. Unfortunately, they are statistically more likely to kill one's own family members because they are not always used correctly.

 

I just fundamentally disagree.

 

I believe there is a huge difference between the numbers of injuries / deaths of ATV's (often without helmets) vs off-roading in a 4 wheel drive. Much safer than driving thru Atlanta to the airport.

 

It's not entirely clear, but the site appears to be grouping all off-roading, 4x4's and ATV's, in one category. I agree that ATV's are more dangerous than most 4x4's. Never been to the airport in Atlanta, so I can't comment there!

 

Fundamentally I agree with personal freedom and minimal regulation as well. Then, some idiot forgets to set his handbrake, kills my loved one, and I start thinking of ways it may have been prevented, or made less likely to have occurred. I know we can't solve all the problems in the world with government regulation, and it's a fools errand to try. However, we can't turn a blind eye to accidental deaths either. As insignificant as our one-on-one debate is, public discourse is critical, and why public forums such as this are of value. Thanks for engaging!

 

Agree

You can't just go off half cocked when something bad happens and ask the Government for more regulations to keep it from happening again. There needs to be evidence that those regulations would actually help to solve the problem.

Idiots exist everywhere, you can't legislate away people doing dumb stuff.

 

I resent that statement...I ensure you was fully cocked!

I fundamentally believe we can, and have, made the world safer through government regulation.

 

I agree with that also, but that doesnt mean it will solve every problem. I just don't see in this specific instance requiring an "off road license" would have prevented this when we see these kinds of mistakes made all the time by people who have been given "on road licenses"