Suspended licenses and ATVs

Here's something to ponder:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — All motorized automobiles, including all-terrain vehicles, are off limits to West Virginians whose driver’s licenses are suspended or revoked, the state Supreme Court has ruled.

In a unanimous opinion issued Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia overturned a circuit judge’s dismissal of a May 2005 indictment against Robert L. Sarver.

Sarver was accused of operating an ATV on a county road in April 2004 after he lost his license following a third-offense drunken driving charge.

The state Supreme Court determined that Roane County Circuit Judge David W. Nibert erred in December 2005 when he dismissed the indictment against Sarver. Nibert’s ruling was based on state law not requiring ATV operators to have a license to operate on a public highway.

But the high court noted that driving is a privilege, and driver’s licenses that grant such a privilege apply to any and all modes of transportation that are motorized.

“With the revocation of his operator’s license, Mr. Sarver lost his privilege to operate any motor vehicle, which includes an all-terrain vehicle, on the public highways of this state,” Justice Joseph Albright wrote in the opinion.

The next logical step would be to require that all ATVs be registered as motor vehicles, meaning they would have to be licensed. It only makes sense. Every other motor vehicle that can legally operate on public roads must have a license plate. Why not ATVs?

When ATV owners got legislative permission to ride on paved roads, they opened themselves up to this sort of question.

Before anyone asks, no, I am not against ATV use. But I am against irresponsible ATV use when that use is on the same road that I drive on. And I have seen too much of it.