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Posts: 23
Casino Cash: $250
Sportbike: 2006 Blue ZX14
10 year old on 3 wheeler
I do not know if this is the proper place for this but I feel this is since thie could have been a future 2 wheel rider.
Last night I watched as a Lifestar Medical Helicopter circled over head at the house and then landed across the road and then completely shut down the rotor. I found out this morning that the neighbors 10 year son had been out on his 3 wheeler riding on their property and ran out of gas. His older brother came and they tied the 3 and 4 wheeler together with a length of rope and then they proceeded to tow the 3 wheeler with the younger brother driving it. At some point the older brother made a turn and the 3 wheeler got pulled over. This some how threw the 10 year old with his head striking a tree. EMS restarted his heart 3 times but he did finally pass away from the injury. He died before they could get him into the chopper and never could revive him afterwards. I am sure this is a horrific blow to the family but even more to the older brother. If you are one who prays then please pray for this family but even more pray for the older brother to find peace and grow from this accident!
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August 2006 Bike of the Month at ZX14.NET
Posts: 708
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Tragic. The brother will have an immense burden to carry with him the rest of his life, sad. My heart really goes out to children.
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Past Bikes: (Old) Honda 80, mopeds, scooters and minibikes, '87FZ 750, '81 CB900, '93 CBR F2, (eight year break), '96 CBR900RR (downed by a cage but not forgotten), What will it be next?!?!?!?......70k-ish miles
That totally sucks, but they banned 3 wheelers for a reason. Honestly, I had a friend that died on one (RIP Curt) and when I worked at the dealership, so many people got hurt.
Honestly, same thing with 4 wheelers. People think more wheels = safer and let their kids ride these things. Actually, they are both far more dangerous.
That totally sucks, but they banned 3 wheelers for a reason. Honestly, I had a friend that died on one (RIP Curt) and when I worked at the dealership, so many people got hurt.
Honestly, same thing with 4 wheelers. People think more wheels = safer and let their kids ride these things. Actually, they are both far more dangerous.
Sad to hear about the kid. It sucks.
WV is up to 49 deaths this year on 4 wheelers. granted most are dumb asses out drinking and riding with out helmets. some one told me last week there is supose to be a ban on jet skis starting in 2007 but I hadn't heard anything from the dealers.
That totally sucks, but they banned 3 wheelers for a reason. Honestly, I had a friend that died on one (RIP Curt) and when I worked at the dealership, so many people got hurt.
Honestly, same thing with 4 wheelers. People think more wheels = safer and let their kids ride these things. Actually, they are both far more dangerous.
Sad to hear about the kid. It sucks.
That's not why 3-wheelers were banned - in fact, were they ever actually banned in the legal sense? I thought that the major manufacturers voluntarily withdrew them from the market, and when they came out with 4-wheelers they implemented the age restrictions (won't sell for use by anyone under 6, 6-12=70cc max, 12-16=90cc max, won't even sell to an adult if they think it's for use by a youngster).
The concern about trikes was their propensity to flip-forward and land on the rider's back (very often on the neck), breaking bones and causing death or at least paralysis.
Probably in this situation the kids were using the towing as a game, trying to go fast, etc... Even if they weren't trying, they were obviously going too fast. Towing is always dangerous because it gives the towed almost no control over acceleration, limited steering control, braking that could be interrupted...but as kids, they didn't know that yet. They didn't have that one accident yet where a bike broke but nobody was hurt, so that they could have learned that lesson.
This kind of stuff really makes me sick and sad because I remember doing just as many stupid things as a kid. I got hurt many times and escaped death by inches many times I'm sure. How many times did any of us try something as seemingly innocuous as towing one bike with another? I knew an adult who tried it and got the rope wrapped around the axle of his Harley and almost flipped it!
Hell, I remember as a kid we used to take my brother's big wheel, my bike, and go to the top of my friend's steep driveway. Then we would tow the big-wheel down the driveway at full speed, get on to the street below, and whoever was doing the towing would make a sharp left turn. Whoever was riding in the big wheel would slide across the street sideways until the wheels hit the opposite curve and then would get tossed about 10 feet in the air on to the lawn. We thought it was fun.
What can we learn from a story like this? I don't know, except that we should all think things through very carefully when doing anything out of the norm with any sort of machinery. Things happen so quickly when you're moving that there is no time to react - you have to try to predict and avoid putting yourself in that kind of situation.
How were those kids supposed to know? I really feel bad for them. Can this be used as an example of lack of proper parental supervision? I can't really say, except that the kids seem kind of young to be doing what they were doing (although I don't know the older brother's age).
This is a terrible tragedy. I don't pray, but my thoughts are with that family.
That's not why 3-wheelers were banned - in fact, were they ever actually banned in the legal sense? I thought that the major manufacturers voluntarily withdrew them from the market, and when they came out with 4-wheelers they implemented the age restrictions (won't sell for use by anyone under 6, 6-12=70cc max, 12-16=90cc max, won't even sell to an adult if they think it's for use by a youngster).
The concern about trikes was their propensity to flip-forward and land on the rider's back (very often on the neck), breaking bones and causing death or at least paralysis.
They were taken out of the US market and a law was put into place effectively banning them. The accident rate was so high and a lot of those were with kids.
The concerns were with the inherent instability of the steering. If you've ever seen a four wheeler lift it's outside rear tire, multiply that by an intesity of four and you will get what happened with three wheelers. the same is true of trikes. They are prone to rolling as well as flipping. My friend died in a side roll over.
The law you spoke of with the 4 wheeler is correct, but unfortunately not enforced often enough. I remember one time a guy came in to buy a 4 wheeler and wanted a Banshee. He said it was for his son, who was standing next to him and was all of 8 years old.
I told him I wasn't going to sell it to him and showed him the poster. He said "That's ok, say it's for me" I told him he didn't get it. I did not want his kid to get hurt. He got all kinds of pissed off and left the dealership. Came back two hours later to show me his new Banshee. I told him " That's great, at least I won't have your kid's blood on my hands" and walked away.
Personal Watercraft generate millions each year in sales, rentals, tourism and transient dollars for local economies. I would be very surprised to see them "outlawed".
As far as this young kid goes, this is a very sad story. My heart goes out to family, friends and especially his brother. As someone else said, I did things that were far more stupid and survived. It makes you wonder why some make it and others do not.
They were taken out of the US market and a law was put into place effectively banning them. The accident rate was so high and a lot of those were with kids.
The concerns were with the inherent instability of the steering. If you've ever seen a four wheeler lift it's outside rear tire, multiply that by an intesity of four and you will get what happened with three wheelers. the same is true of trikes. They are prone to rolling as well as flipping. My friend died in a side roll over.
The law you spoke of with the 4 wheeler is correct, but unfortunately not enforced often enough. I remember one time a guy came in to buy a 4 wheeler and wanted a Banshee. He said it was for his son, who was standing next to him and was all of 8 years old.
I told him I wasn't going to sell it to him and showed him the poster. He said "That's ok, say it's for me" I told him he didn't get it. I did not want his kid to get hurt. He got all kinds of pissed off and left the dealership. Came back two hours later to show me his new Banshee. I told him " That's great, at least I won't have your kid's blood on my hands" and walked away.
Two weeks later, the kids crashed it.
I agree with everything that you stated, except the age restrictions for sales of quads are not a law (at least not at a federal level, and not at a state level that I know of) - the restrictions are based on the major manufacturers' voluntary moratorium to not sell ATV's of certain sizes for use by children under certain ages, regardless of who is actually doing the buying. In fact, the only "punishment" for violating that rule is that if discovered, a delearship could very well lose its franchise - but it would not face criminal charges (though if there was resulting injury the dealership would face a pretty tough civil damages case).
Why did ATV manufacturer's do this? Because they had learned their lesson from the ATC fiasco and wanted to prempt possible future government intervention. Again, ATC's weren't illegal to own or operate, or even to sell - but they were banned from import in to the US in the early/mid-1980's (I think '86 onwards, IIRC). The independent study (which was cited often in a huge broadcast at the time on 60 Minutes or 20/20 or one of those prime-time news magazine shows) that led to that happening did not cite inherent turning instability as the problem, because the ATC's had a tendency to not get traction in turns with the front wheel and thus continue to slide forward (in fact, I currently still own a 1985 ATC110, which exhibits the sliding behaviour which is contrary to side-rolling), but rather the tendency of the units to easily flip somewhat forwards (since there was only one front wheel and thus the force of a flip could easily vector toward both the side and front), as opposed to more sideways (as is the case on quads), thus landing on the back of the rider and causing serious spinal injury. If I can find the citation for the report, I'll post it.
I'm not trying to be nit-picky or to correct anyone, but I just want anyone reading this to understand the vast difference in ATC safety versus Quad ATV safety. There is a substantial difference in their propensity to roll sideways vs. forward, which has an effect on the likelihood of rider winding up with the machine on his/her back. This does not mean that ATV's should be considered totally "safe" by any means. As always, proper training, supervision, gear, protection, and all caution should always be used when anyone is operating an ATV - but especially children.
Your story about the Banshee buyer is great. At my shop, our policy is that if someone comes in and we even suspect that they are buying a quad for a youngster in violation of the policy, then we'll not only not make that sale but we'll put that person's name on a list and will not sell that person any ATV ever in the future, because we have no way of knowing if that person is intending to violate the policy.
We've even had agents from our manufacturer come in dressed up as customers, trying to trick us in to selling them an oversized quad for a young kid.
If we ever got caught, either in a sting or in a real sale that somehow became known to our manufacturer, we'd almost surely lose our franchise.
10 year old on 3 wheeler
