Alberta won’t change ATV helmet laws, despite growing death toll

CALGARY – Following a rash of ATV deaths in which many riders were not wearing helmets, the Alberta government says it has no plans to introduce legislation to make helmets mandatory for users of the off-road machines.

“At this time, we’re not contemplating going down that road,” Transportation Minister Ric McIver told the Herald on Monday.

Since May, a number of people have been killed riding ATVs in this province. Of the seven reported deaths, three were not wearing helmets.

Alberta is one of only two Canadian jurisdictions that do not have a mandatory helmet law for ATV riders.

In 2008, the Alberta government considered pursuing mandatory helmet legislation, but the bill never saw the insides of the legislature.

Even if a helmet law was introduced, the transportation minister said it would be difficult to enforce.

“You can’t have enforcement people everywhere all the time, particularly at off-road locations all over the place where people like to go,” McIver said.

Instead, McIver said, the onus is on parents to ensure young ATV riders use the machines safely. As “most” ATV injuries and deaths are caused by vehicles “rolling over on top of the driver,” McIver added, helmet legislation “wouldn’t make a difference.”

Dr. Richard Buckley, head of orthopedic trauma at the University of Calgary, begs to differ.

Head, neck and spine injuries are the most common injuries among fatal ATV incidents, according to a University of Calgary study of which Buckley was the senior author.

The 2010 study looked at 10 years’ worth of data on ATV injuries, deaths and health-care costs.

Over the 10 years, there were 459 cases of severe trauma from ATV crashes. There were 79 deaths. Males 18 to 19 had the highest rate of injury and death. ATV injuries cost the provincial health-care system $6 million in acute care costs every year.

“Helmet use was associated with a significantly lower rate of head, neck and c-spine injuries,” the authors wrote.

While he does think ATVs can be used safely with proper education, Buckley said “it’s when you combine youth, alcohol, speed and unknown roads, then you have problems.”

“It comes down to some form of, whether it be safety courses, mandatory helmets, this sort of thing that will help people with making good choices,” he said.

Kathy Belton, associate director for the Alberta Centre for Injury Control and Research, wants to see helmets become mandatory for ATV users.

“Alberta and the Yukon are about the only jurisdictions in Canada that don’t have a helmet law,” she said.

Belton said most Albertans – 84 per cent of those polled – have said they would support a helmet law.

Don McCay, president of the Calgary ATV Riders Association, said, for insurance reasons, people of all ages are required to wear helmets when they ride with the club.

“If you’re not going to wear a helmet, you’re not going to ride with us,” McCay said.

However, McCay said he doesn’t think many riders would obey a mandatory helmet law, and it would be “almost impossible to enforce.”

“Right now, the manpower they have in the backcountry to enforce stuff like that is very small,” he said.

With a high centre of gravity, ATVs can easily flip or roll if proper riding techniques are not followed. In Alberta, riders under the age of 14 must be supervised by an adult when riding on public lands, but there is no law requiring users to receive training.

Other provinces, like Quebec, have made training mandatory.

RECENT ATV DEATHS IN ALBERTA

• June 10 – A 24-year-old man from De Winton was killed when he lost control of his ATV and struck a tree near Bragg Creek. The man was not wearing a helmet, according to Turner Valley RCMP.

• MAY 24 – An 18-year-old Hinton man was killed when he was ejected from his quad. He was not wearing a helmet.

• MAY 20 – A 22-year-old man was killed in a rollover near Rocky Mountain House. Whether he was wearing headgear is not known. On the same day, a 40-year-old Drayton Valley man, who was wearing a helmet, was killed in a rollover.

• MAY 19 – A 12-year-old girl was killed when she was pinned underneath an ATV at a gravel pit about 20 km east of Cadomin. She was wearing a helmet.

• MAY 15 – Eugene Sawchuk, 71, of Edmonton was killed while riding an ATV near a campground east of Slave Lake. A medical examiner attributed his death to massive chest trauma. Sawchuk was not wearing a helmet.

• MAY – A 38-year-old Edmonton man, who was wearing a helmet, was killed when he drove his ATV over a 20-metre sandhill and fell down the other side in Edmonton.