Watch out if you use an atv!

Although 4 wheeler atvs are some of the most dangerous vehicles known to man, people are more than ever buying 4 wheelers for kids. I think this is ridiculous. In the area where I grew up, practically all of the guys, and more than a few of the girls, drive 4 wheelers for recreation in every season but the dead of winter. Not only do these four wheelers tear up the natural habitat, but they make tremendous noise, disturbing the native wildlife while causing their terrible erosion. But worst of all, is the danger of the 4 wheelers. Out of all of the 4 wheeler drivers I knew growing up, I would say at least half of them were injured on their ATVs. My friend Jimbo cracked an ankle when the 4 wheeler that he was piloting flipped over on top of him. He was lucky that it didn’t crush him totally. There were some people who were not so lucky.

A safer way to go 4 wheeling is using 4×4 trucks, and this is also popular. Still, anything that involves driving trucks around off road for recreation, people will find a way to make dangerous, especially if they are young and stupid. Instead of having to worry about their 4 wheelers rolling over on them, we now have the problem of drunken drivers going in their older brother’s, or father’s pickup trucks at high speeds on the back roads. And more than once, this has had tragic results.

I just don’t see why, with all of this tragedy, parents would even think of buying their kids 4 wheelers. It just does not make any sense to me – does it to you? It is not like there is absolutely nothing to do in this town. There are movie theaters, coffee shops, the soda shop, the main drag. There is even an all ages venue that provides rock music for the kids. And that does not even touch on all of the beautiful wilderness that surrounds us. But instead of enjoying that wilderness for its quiet and mystery, the kids just use it to drive their 4 wheelers, making enough noise to wake the devil himself and completely trampling on nature. I think that that is a shame when you realize how much they miss out on hearing over the rumble of their 250cc 4 wheelers engines. There is a whole world passing them by.