CHARLESTON, W.Va.-
All-terrain vehicles should be banned from paved highways, say state troopers who are asking lawmakers to modify West Virginia’s two-year-old ATV safety law.
“When our guys get together, that’s the first thing they say: ‘We’ve got to get them off the roads,'” State Police Capt. J.C. Chambers told a legislative interim committee studying ATV safety.
Lawmakers agreed to review the 2004 law after 40 people died in ATV-related accidents last year. So far this year, 52 people have died.
When passing the law, legislators included a provision that allowed ATVs limited access to paved roads without painted center lines. Only 13,000 of the state’s 34,000 miles of roads have center lines. ATV tires are not designed for pavement, and few of the vehicles are designed to carry passengers.
“Now, they’re just riding everywhere,” Chambers said. “The old saying is, you give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.”
Chambers told the committee it may be impossible to determine how many ATV accidents can be attributed to highway use because the state does not have a uniform reporting form.
Committee co-chairman Delegate Dale Martin, D-Putnam, said he is concerned that a highway ban could hurt business for the Hatfield-McCoy Trails in southern West Virginia.
The State Police ATV committee is asking lawmakers to make the following changes to the law:
–Mandatory helmets for all ATV riders. Only riders under 18 are now required to wear helmets.
–Increase penalties for fleeing law enforcement to include mandatory jail time and impoundment of the ATV.
–Require all ATVs to be titled and registered, and require that all ATVs display registration stickers.
–Increase penalties for second- and third-offense ATV law violations, including jail time and vehicle impoundment for third-offense convictions.
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Information from: The Charleston Gazette,
