Safety Tips for ATV/UTV Riders
Since their introduction in the mid-1970s, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) have been a consistent and growing source of deaths and injuries, including among children. More recently, utility task vehicles (UTVs) were introduced and have become increasingly popular, outselling ATVs in the U.S. and worldwide since 2015. Nearly 30% of those treated with an ATV or UTV injury in an emergency department are children under 16 years of age, and those 16-24 years make up another 22% of those injured.
UI Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital is committed to ATV and UTV safety and offers an ATV/UTV injury prevention program we call Safety Tips for ATV/UTV Riders (STARs). The Stead Family Children’s Hospital Safety Store staff aims to prevent injuries and deaths by educating children and parents throughout the state on the proper and safest ways to use ATVs and UTVs. While ATVs and UTVs can be enjoyable and useful, they can become dangerous very quickly.
About 250 ATV and UTV crashes occur each year in Iowa, resulting in injuries that need to be seen in an emergency department. Head injuries are the leading cause of death in ATV and UTV crashes. Currently, the state of Iowa has no helmet laws, and helmet use overall is relatively low in Iowa. Consistent use of helmets could reduce ATV-related deaths by an estimated 40 percent or more and non-fatal head injuries by over 60%. Helmets are also important when riding in UTVs
The 3 E’s of ATV and UTV safety are engineering, education, and enforcement. With no formal state or national programs focused on ATV and UTV safety, as there are for auto safety, our program fills a need in Iowa and beyond to help reduce the number ATV/UTV injuries.
- Learn more about ATV safety.
Supported by
We are proud to collaborate with these organizations.
- Brain Injury Alliance of Iowa
- Rural Health and Safety Clinic of Greater Johnson County
- Safe Kids Johnson County
- University of Iowa Injury Prevention Research Center
- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers