VANCOUVER – Three people were rushed to hospital on Monday night after an ATV accident in Abbotsford.
Crews were called to a farm on Clayburn Road at about 9 p.m.
Abbotsford assistant fire chief Jeff Adams says the accident happened in a berry field.
The ATV accelerated, hit a bump and flipped over.
A mother and two children were rushed to hospital. A five-year-old child suffered a broken arm.
The mother wasn’t seriously hurt and her eight-year-old son was bruised, but not injured.
Adams says unlicensed ATV-ing on farmland is a problem, and there have been many accidents lately where some people have been seriously hurt.
Provincial Health Services Authority says there are approximately 1000 children and youth hospitalized yearly across Canada for ATV-related injuries.
The rate of ATV-related injury hospitalizations (for all ages) rose by 57 per cent between 1996-2004, with absolute number increasing from 1700 in 1996/1997 to over 2800 in 2004/2005.
The number of Canadian deaths from ATV-related trauma has increased from an average of 141/year in 2000 to 2002, up to an average of 179/year in 2003 to 2007. Almost 40 per cent of those who died were children and youth, 19 years old and younger.
BC Children’s hospital trauma program manager Lisa Widas says ATV accidents often result in neurological or orthopedic injuries for children involved.
Widas says Canadian Pediatric Society recommends that no one under 16 years of age should be operating ATVs.
“Children do not have the strength, balance or judgment to be able to operate ATVs,” she says. “It is important for parents and caregivers to understand the risks associated with allowing their children to operate or be a passenger on an ATV.”
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