All-terrain vehicles will be the focus of Kentucky's annual Farm Safety Week program. Hundreds of high school students are gathering this week for mock ATV emergencies.
The head of Kentucky's Agriculture Education and Outreach office says, while there's been a decline in rollover tractor deaths, fatalities caused by ATVs have remained about the same year-to-year. Jay Hall say "Rally for Life" events on high school football fields include mock crash victims along with police, fire, and EMS crews. "And they'll come roaring in with sirens blasting. They rush in on the field and they'll attend to the mock victims and then one of the mock victims will need to be air carried to a hospital," said Hall.
Hall says state officials are hoping to influence youth behavior on ATV's. One of the lessons focuses on the use of proper safety gear such as helmet, pads, and boots. The Ag educator says students are instructed to always use these vehicles off-road. "Most ATV accidents, like I said, they occur because someone made a bad choice. They were riding on asphalt or they were riding on a hill in an improper manner and they just made a bad choice," added Hall.
A mock ATV event was held in Owen county Monday. Additional "Rally for Life" events are scheduled in Graves County Wednesday and Larue County next week.
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