Girl’s death draws attention to ATV safety

OROFINO, Idaho – The death of an 11-year-old Orofino girl in a four-wheeler accident Sept. 24 has underscored safety recommendations most people continue to ignore and triggered calls for more ATV driver education, authorities and retail dealers say.

Alexia Galloway, the daughter of Michael and Elizabeth Miller, of Orofino, died after losing control of the 1990 Honda FourTrax she was driving, with her mother and 1-year-old sister aboard, in the Freeman Creek area.

“The driver hit the gas instead of the brake to downshift and flipped the machine over backwards,” the Clearwater County Sheriff’s Office reported.

The mother and infant were not injured in the accident. But the 11-year-old girl was flown by Idaho backcountry medics to Orofino’s Clearwater Valley Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

None of the individuals involved was wearing a helmet, Clearwater County Sheriff Alan Hengen said, despite a state law requiring all drivers of ATVs under age 18 to wear them.

There is no minimum age law for driving ATVs in Idaho, Hengen said.

“There are a lot of issues here,” Hengen said.

“I know these folks. The father is a member of our search and rescue. But you look at all accidents, and most are preventable.”

All four-wheelers, aside from a few newer models, are made for one passenger, and most are designed for drivers 16 years and older, according to dealers contacted by the Lewiston Tribune.

“A lot of people don’t think it will happen to them because they’ve done it 100 times,” April Coggins, co-owner of Pullman Honda, said of the tendency for people to ride double or even triple.

“And then it happens, in just seconds.”

All machines sold today have warning labels on them saying they’re meant for one person. What’s more, dealers can lose their franchises if they tell buyers the machines can handle two or more people.

“I’m surprised it doesn’t happen every weekend,” Tom Jones, sales manager at Mac’s Cycle in Clarkston, said of ATV accidents involving more than one rider. “They have markings on them. And unless they’re designed for two passengers, they’re one-person vehicles.”

The federal Consumer Products Safety Commission recognizes a couple of models that have longer wheelbases and are designed with two seats ahead of the rear axle, Jones said.

Such models, he said, are becoming more popular, but the vast majority of ATVs are designed for one person.

“Obviously, when you’ve got three people on an ATV with no helmets and an inexperienced driver, that’s a problem,” said Hengen, who has taught safety courses for youngsters.

Hengen also said it’s time for the Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation to use some of their funds, collected from ATV registration, for driver education programs.

“I’m a little hot over this,” Hengen said.

“We’ve had several bad accidents in this county on ATVs, and I attribute it back to a need for public education.”

Steve Frost, bureau chief for the recreation department, said there is movement toward some sort of driver education program geared to younger drivers and fashioned around the state’s hunter safety program.

“We’ve experienced 15 percent growth (in numbers of ATVs registered statewide) every year for the past 10 years,” Frost said.

Dennis Browning, owner of Mountain Motor Sports in Orofino, said the ATV Safety Institute offers a safety course for people who purchase a new four-wheeler. The courses are available throughout the country, and the institute actually pays new owners between $50 and $100 to attend such classes.

Browning said the industry is dedicated to safety.

“Most everybody allows their younger children to drive these things,” Browning said, “and they don’t even wear protective gear.”

Hengen warned that unless ATV owners police themselves and adhere to industry safety guidelines, government could step in to pass laws, for example, that make riding double on single-rider ATVs a crime. “How many people are they going to pile onto these things?” he said.

Coggins said the answer to that kind of question unfortunately comes at great cost to a family.

“The poor mother lost her daughter, and you sure don’t want to blame her. But the physics of it tells you what’s going to happen.”