MINDEN, WV (WOAY)- On Friday, May 23rd, a former college football player was in a freak ATV accident in Pennsylvania that left him injured and his girlfriend dead. Neither of them were wearing safety equipment, according to the crash report.
While, it’s fun to ride around on an ATV, and many think you can go around on these things without proper headgear, it’s actually quite dangerous. So before you could hit the gas, you’ve got to put on your helmet.
We talked to New River ATV about why helmets are needed when riding. Helmets protect your head by distributing the force of impact through the surface of the helmet instead of directly on your head.
“I can name on more than one hand the number of times that helmet saved my life,” said Kylie Ahart, a tour guide at New River ATV.
According to atvinjury.org, West Virginia is one of the states with the highest number of fatal ATV accidents.
“The terrain is very rocky and rugged. It’s West Virginia, so any extra layer of protection that you can have on your head is super important,” explained Ahart. “Usually, the biggest accidents and the biggest injuries happen just when you least expect it. So just riding around the house or going up and down the road and anything like that, anything can happen out there.”
Ahart shared her story about how her helmet saved her life in one incident.
“So when I was racing, I had a competitor actually land on top of me,” said Ahart. “And so whenever I fell off their tire, hit the back of my head and actually cracked my brand new helmet. Without that helmet, without my neck brace, I probably wouldn’t be standing here today.”
