Hospital urges ATV riders
to stay safe and wear helmets
10-3-2019
Caregivers with the Intermountain Sanpete Valley Hospital spent Labor Day weekend at local trail heads handing out free helmets to ATV riders who were riding without them.
The hospital donated about 150 helmets to unprotected ATV riders as part of a safety campaign that stresses, “Have a Head? Wear a Helmet.”
Hospital workers kindly stopped riders who were not wearing a helmet, no matter the age, and gave away the helmets right then free of charge.
The free helmets were dispersed at Skyline Drive ATV trailer parking lot on top of Fairview Canyon and the Yearns Pond ATV trail in Manti Canyon.
In 2018, about 31 percent of ATV accidents in Sanpete County were severely critical, and 68 percent of riders in those accidents were not wearing a helmet, according to Aaron Wood, Sanpete Valley Hospital administrator.
“Our primary goal in donating these ATV helmets is to reinforce how critical it is to wear a helmet,” he said. “No matter why you’re riding—work, family or recreation—you should be wearing a helmet at all times while on an ATV.”
Sanpete Valley Hospital and the Utah Division of Natural Recourses also offered two ATV safety courses this summer in Sanpete County to the public, free of charge, as part of the safety campaign.
According to Utah ATV Laws and Safety Regulations, every rider should be certified, and it is the law for children under 16 years old or without a driver’s license to be certified. At the end of each course, Sanpete Valley Hospital gave each child that participated in the course a free ATV helmet.
“My goal with this campaign is to teach kids how to appropriately ride ATVs and be safe; along with reminding all riders to wear a helmet,” said Trina Johnson, hospital trauma coordinator.
“We want to thank the Division of Natural Recourses for their donation of time to our community and encourage everyone to be safe by not riding beyond your skill level, and make sure that the right amount of riders, as well as age and size for the vehicle, are being observed,” she said.
