W.Va. records 34th ATV death this year

This is not a post bashing ATVs or ATV riders.

According to The Associated Press, Nicholas Scott Hunt, 19, of Darwin, W.Va., died Saturday of injuries suffered in an ATV accident at Accoville. He reportedly was not wearing a helmet. Hunt was the 34th person killed in an ATV accident in West Virginia this year. Last year, West Virginia set a record with 40 ATV-related deaths.

That's all the information I have, so I can't say whether Hunt would have survived if he had worn a helmet.

I've driven ATVs, both the three-wheeled and four-wheeled varieties. I tried a three-wheeler after having experience on a four-wheeler, and the three-wheeler scared me. I got into a jam or two on the four-wheeler, but I got out of them by being very careful for the next few minutes. I didn't push my luck or say to myself, "Hey, let's see how high I can get in the air if I go real fast up this little hill." Seriously, I have driven on Route 10 in Lincoln County and seen teenagers and young adults doing just that.

ATVs are fun. On a farm like the one I grew up on, they can be very useful. The number of deaths could be proportional to the number of ATVs in use. The number of deaths per ATV rider or miles ridden could be going down for all we know, but the number of deaths keeps climbing. I don't have ready access to a database of ATV injuries, so I can't tell whether those are going up or down.

But as long as the deaths keep occurring, there will be calls for further restrictions on ATV use. You can expect that when we record our 41st death this year or when new milestones are reached, such as 50 or even 75.