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LITTLE ROCK—To combat the persistent trend of injuries from accidents involving all-terrain vehicles, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the Cooperative Extension Service and other agencies announced a new push Monday to teach state residents how to operate the machines safely.

More than teaching classes, what’s needed is a cultural change in Arkansas that moves people away from the notion that four-wheelers are toys, organizers said.

“There is absolutely nothing recreational about what we see in the ER,” said Dr. Mary Aitken, a pediatrician and director of the Pediatric Injury Prevention Center at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

About 15 Arkansans die each year in ATV crashes and nearly 90 percent of ATV accidents in Arkansas involve drivers younger than 16 on an adult-size four-wheeler, organizers said.

Children tend to get hurt on the machines because of a lack of proper equipment or training. Aitken said that Arkansas Children’s Hospital has come to expect between 70 and 80 youngsters admitted each year because of ATV accidents, but that the overall rate of injury has increased 2.5-fold over the last 10 years, she said. The admissions figure does not include children treated in the emergency room and released and does not include other hospitals in the state.

The injuries can be horrific.

The worst are head injuries, which if survived can affect a victim and his or her family for the rest of their lives, said Hope Mullins, research coordinator for the hospital’s injury prevention program.

“We see some gruesome foot injuries,” Mullins said. “You’ll see a foot that gets mangled up in a tire or crushed between a tree and the vehicle.” Mullins said that when a foot is involved, those tend to be “dirty injuries,” with flesh and bone being crushed together with soil and muck. Scouting an area before riding is one of the safety rules the organizers are trying to convey. They want to work through parents to reach young children so they build a lifetime of good riding habits.

The extension service’s 4-H Youth Development Program is offering the classes on ATV safety, something the organization has not done since the early 1990s, said Mike Klumpp, Arkansas 4-H ATV Safety Coordinator. Also, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission is to include ATV safety as a segment of its hunter safety courses.

The safety rules to get started are simple enough. Ride with a helmet, goggles, above-the-ankle leather boots, sturdy gloves, jeans and a long-sleeve shirt. Never carry a passenger and, for young people, never ride a too-big vehicle. Children younger than 16 should be supervised and never allowed to ride an adult-size ATV.

The safety classes will also teach riders how to handle obstacles, run uphill and downhill safely and negotiate a turn in gravel, one of the most common situations in which accidents occur, said Mark Sloan, a 4-H youth coordinator in Saline County. The 4-H complex at Ferndale has two ATV safety courses installed to help with the safety push.

The extension service has trained 16 county agents as ATV Safety Institute instructors for the 4-H ATV RiderCourse. There will be no charge for the half-day courses, though there could be facilities fees at some locations.