RIDING FOR
F
ew things in life can be as thrilling as swinging a leg over an all-terrain vehicle, pressing down on the throttle, and feeling the wind beat against your face. However, even with the sense of thrill and fun, ATVs cause 18 to 24 deaths each year in Oklahoma. Ninety percent of ATV crashes were drivers under the age of 16 who are driving an adult-sized ATV too big for them to control, according to The Children’s Center Rehabilitation Hospital. Jim Rhodes saw this problem and decided to do something about it. Rhodes serves as the Oklahoma ATV youth safety educator for Oklahoma State University Extension and receives financial support from the Oklahoma Farm Bureau. On Aug. 24, 2020, Rhodes hosted the first ATV Youth Riders Course for youth ages 10 to 18. Now, more than 50 classes later, the program has reached more than 300 youth.
OSU EXTENSION OFFERS ATV COURSE
“As I read the newspaper and saw the number of accidents from ATVs that were happening, I knew something needed to be done to help the kids,” Rhodes said. The ATV Youth Riders Course includes an online course that takes about two hours to complete. The online course teaches students they should only ride ATVs on dirt, gravel or grass, not paved roads. The course explains the personal protection equipment, or PPE, that should be worn while riding an ATV as well as how to plan their rides. After the online course is completed, students can attend the riding portion of the course. The riding portion of the course can be done in Guthrie, Oklahoma, at the Oklahoma Farm Bureau/Oklahoma 4-H ATV Training Facility, or the facilitators can host the hands-on training close to participating youth’s location. During the riding portion of the
Fifth-grade students at Middleberg Schools lined up to learn to operate their ATVs safely. Photo by Andrea Vandever-Moore. 8O WINTER/SPRING 2022
SAFETY
class, the students complete 11 different exercises on a size-appropriate ATV, starting with basic maneuvers and working their way up to more complex ones. The facilitators teach different controls on the ATV, how to make regular and sharp turns safely, addressing difficult obstacles, how to shift weight during turns, and the use of proper techniques while riding over hills. “As kids ride our course, you can see their confidence level increase,” Rhodes said. “We have kids who show up and have never ridden an ATV, and then we have kids who own an ATV and ride all the time.
