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Girl dies when ATV flips
CARL CLUTCHEY
11/17/2009

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It was the most horrible scene a parent could imagine.

Their precious child, critically injured while driving an all-terrain vehicle.

That‘s what police say happened late Sunday afternoon at a Shuniah home, when an ATV flipped while a 10-year-old girl was at the controls.

Police said Monday that when the girl‘s parents looked out to the yard at their Lakeshore Drive home, they saw the accident‘s aftermath and rushed out to try and revive their daughter.

The girl, who had not been wearing a helmet police said, suffered head injuries. She was pronounced dead at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre later Sunday.

Police are not releasing her identity until all family members have been notified, Thunder Bay OPP Const. Diana Cole said Monday.

The girl‘s younger sibling, who was a passenger on the ATV when it flipped, was the only witness. The sibling did not require medical attention, Cole said.

Safety advocates and medical officials said the unfortunate incident is a painful reminder of the danger that arises when young children are riding on ATVs.

“Some people thought that when (manufacturers) switched from three-wheelers to quads, they would be safer,” said Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre trauma program co-ordinator Bonnie Zabirka.

“It‘s a myth that (the quads) are more stable and don‘t flip as easily,” said Zabirka. “You see them on TV, but you don‘t realize that they are still very dangerous.”

While Regional‘s emergency department doesn‘t see a lot of children who have been injured on ATVs, it does routinely see adult riders who have been seriously hurt on the machines, she said.

In September, the Ontario Medical Association issued a report that called on the province to ban children under 14 from driving ATVs.

“It is frightening that it is perfectly legal for a child as young as five to drive an ATV, on any field or path, at virtually any speed,” OMA president Dr. Suzanne Strasberg said in a news release accompanying the report.
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