Dear Editor:
RE: No ATVS on local roads, Dec. 31.
After reading Ms. Eybel’s letter and because of the spare time the holidays and COVID-19 gave me, I decided to have a look at public health’s report, The Epidemiology of All-Terrain Vehicle and Snowmobile Related Injuries in Ontario. With a title like that I should have known better and just watched Netflix.
This study was conducted over a two-year period, 2014 and 2015 for all of Ontario. The study shows that approximately 94% of accidents that require a trip to the hospital happen other than on a highway.
In Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph, which is a large area, those numbers are much lower. It should also be mentioned that almost 90% of these people that had to visit the hospital were male (more evidence to why women tend to live longer than men).
Risky behavior is mentioned: driving at night, use of alcohol, having multiple passengers, driving too fast, and my personal favourite, using an ATV for recreation. Call in the fun cops; they have taken away indoor fun, like bowling and haircuts, they might as well deprive us of outdoor fun as well.
Maybe the writer does not realize that ATVs using a roadway would be regulated by the Highway Traffic Act as well as the Off-Road Vehicles Act and possibly a local bylaw. There are some regulations that cover ATV use on private property, but enforcement must be next to impossible.
After spending my off time reading this 56-page report, I feel that the Minto Safe Communities Committee should go after the Ontario government to penalize parents that allow underage children to drive or ride on an ATV or let them ride without a helmet and possibly teach the males in the house to stop saying, “Watch this.”
Stone Kolly,
Harriston