INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Children riding all-terrain vehicles, or ATVs, in Indiana will soon be required to wear a helmet.

 

House Enrolled Act 1200, signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb on April 26, is aimed at reducing the number of fatalities and injuries from the off-road vehicles (ORVs). The law, taking effect July 1, requires anyone under 18 to wear an approved helmet while riding any ORV on public or private property – including the state’s two ATV riding sites at Interlake and Redbird state recreational areas near Linton and Lynnville.

Helmets were already required for children and adults at those parks for ATVs and dirt bikes, but not when riding sideby-side ORVs equipped with roll bars or overhead protection, according to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR). DNR officials said the new law applies to children on side-by-side ORVs.

Under the law, adults who grant permission for a child to ride without a helmet can be charged with a Class C infraction punishable by an up-to $500 fine. Approved helmets are those meeting U.S Department of Transportation (DOT) standards.

Helmets will not be provided at the state-owned riding facilities, so users are urged to figure out the correct sizing of the helmets being purchased for their children before venturing out on the hilly terrain of those properties.

According to the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC), there were 263 reported deaths associated with ATVs in Indiana from 1982-2015. Indiana ranks 22nd in the nation for the number of ATV fatalities in that time period. Kentucky had the fifth-highest number with 652 fatalities during those years, according to the USCPSC.

Tennessee, with 556 fatalities, and Michigan, with 440, ranked seventh and 10th.

Shawn Brown, a DNR conservation officer based in Michigan City, Ind., said approved helmets will come with a label stating it meets DOT standards. In 2016, he said there were 244 ORV crashes that resulted in 256 injuries statewide. The collisions resulted in 23 people dying, including three children.

“That’s quite a bit of accidents for the year,” said Brown. He said the number of crashes is probably higher because the statistics were gathered from cases investigated strictly by the DNR, and he believes DNR isn’t notified about some accidents handled by other local law enforcement agencies. Several fatalities have already occurred in Indiana this year, including one in April that claimed the life of 7-year-old Emma Clark of Wadesville. According to DNR, Clark was riding with her mother and another adult on the back of an ATV that flipped.

None of the passengers had a helmet on and the adults were not seriously injured, DNR said.

About three weeks prior to that, 14-year old Kaleb Poehlein was killed when the ATV he was driving hit a small ditch and went airborne before striking a tree and landing upside down in Pike County. He also was not wearing a helmet, DNR said.

According to the USCPSC, Texas, followed by West Virginia and California, led the nation in ATV fatalities from 1982-2015, with 780, 725 and 703, respectively. Ohio was 10th with 442 deaths, while Illinois had 289 fatalities and 180 people died in ATV crashes in Iowa during those years.

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), ATVs have also become popular in farming. They are used in agriculture for a variety of tasks including hauling small loads, inspecting fence lines, carrying pesticide applicators and pulling trailers. But there’s been a price, with three out of every five ATV fatalities linked to their use on the farm, according to NIOSH.