No helmet law coming for Alberta ATV riders
Posted Jun 20, 2012 8:04 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Despite a recent rash of ATV-related injuries and deaths, the Alberta government says it has no plans to make it mandatory to wear helmets.
Alberta is one of only two jurisdictions – the Yukon is the other – where riders of off-road vehicles do not have to wear a helmet.
According to the province’s website, as of July 2010, riders of dirt bikes, ATVs and snowmobiles in Alberta do not have to wear protective head gear.
In 2008, MLA’s considered enacting legislation but a bill never saw the inside of the legislature.
Transportation Minister Ric McIver says the issue isn’t clear-cut.
He tells 660News there are no immediate plans to enact a bill, but adds nothing is off the table.
“And when it becomes more apparent when we think a helmet law is the right thing to do, then we’ll do it,” he says. “But there are certain things people need to keep in mind and that’s that a helmet law doesn’t apply on private property.”
“I get it that people want riders to be safe; the government certainly wants people to be safe but if we put in place something that’s mandatory we have to make sure that we’re not doing harm in the midst of trying to do good.”
The minister believes helmets “wouldn’t always make a difference” because in many incidents, off-road machines roll onto the rider.
He says in some respects, the onus has to be on parents.
“Please, please, please make sure young people are able to ride them, they’re educated and trained and that they are only able to ride them under safe conditions and under proper supervision,” he says.
The University of Calgary’s Dr. Richard Buckley disagrees with McIver’s position.
Buckley, head of orthopaedic trauma at the U of C, calls it a “public health issue” and is vowing to increase public pressure.
In his report, he found “one in five serious ATV incidents result in somebody dying.”
It reveals that of the 459 serious related traumas between April 1, 1998, and March 1, 2008, head injuries were the most common.
“Trauma is a disease; it’s a disease of bad choices. Unfortunately, I see over and over again the same kind of person in the operating room. It’s a sad story,” says Buckley.
The paper also shows a 17 per cent mortality rate from ATV incidents in Alberta; eight times higher than that of cars.
In the last two months there have been at least eight ATV-related deaths across the province where half of victims weren’t wearing a helmet.
