Helmets key to safety, ATV instructors say

No helmet, no ride.

Rod Torbert spends many weekends teaching new ATV riders at St. Joe State Park in Park Hills, Mo., how to operate the vehicles safely.

Helmets are just part of the required uniform of a safe rider, the 52-year-old Perryville man said.

"They have to wear goggles or eye protection. They have to wear boots, long sleeve shirts and pants even in summertime," he said.

"Safety gear is number one in the class," he added.

ATV manufacturers and the ATV Safety Institute in Irvine, Calif., encourage riders to take a training course.

Manufacturers typically pay $75 to $100 to ATV buyers who take the class. The industry-funded ATV Safety Institute pays the instructors.

"You get it for free, and you get paid to take it. I don't know of many industries that go to that length to teach you to use their product safely," said Mike Mount, spokesman for the institute.

But such training is voluntary. Only about 35 percent of first-time ATV buyers attend training classes, he said.

Torbert, who has ridden ATVs since he was a child and has been teaching 24 to 30 classes a year the past three years, said few young riders take the one-day, Saturday class.

His students often are older adults. "I have had people in their 70s or 80s," he said.

"For a lot of older people, it is just a way for them to get around on the farm."

Fellow ATV instructor Stanley Lurk of Perryville said safety depends on the rider. ATVs are made to traverse rough ground, but riders have to use common sense.

For example, ATVs aren't meant to be raced through creeks, said Lurk, who is retired from the Missouri Department of Conservation. State law prohibits the riding of ATVs in creeks or streams except on the rider's own land.

Lurk said some ATV accidents are caused by drunken riders. "When you get a few beers, you can get out there and think you are Superman," Lurk said.

"If you use them the way they are meant to be, they are fine and dandy," he said.

Lurk understands that riders make mistakes.

"I hit a tree one time," he said. "Like everybody else, I was probably riding too fast for the conditions."