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Published: January 03, 2008 11:09 pm
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ATV safety advocate crafting new legislation</p>
Roads seen as critical component of any bill</p>
By Mannix Porterfield
Register-Herald Reporter
Telescoping the amount of asphalt open to all-terrain vehicles in West Virginia is viewed by safety advocate Karen Coria as the most critical component in any new legislation this year.
Yet, any plan lawmakers take up in the 2008 session dealing with roads needs to be flexible so folks who need four-wheelers for business or emergencies aren’t left behind, says Coria, a lobbyist for the Specialty Institute of America.
Existing law bans ATVs from roads with a center line or with more than two lanes, but Coria says this leaves some 30,000 miles of paved “country roads” open to riders.
Her organization views the four-wheeler as strictly an off-road vehicle, but she says this isn’t always practical in the Mountain State.
“The reality is that in West Virginia, as in many rural areas, citizens use ATVs for all kinds of uses,” Coria said Thursday.
“They use them on their farms. Use them for utilitarian purposes. Businesses use them. And those individuals that use them in their work need some access at times to get from one place to another. Keeping that in mind, if we can somehow put legislation together that allows those that need access to be able to get it without hurting anyone else, that’s the key.”
Coria suggested a pilot ATV project allowing the vehicles on roads in a manner that doesn’t lend them to accidents.
“How we do that, I don’t know, but there’s got to be a way,” she said.
Another safety advocate, Delegate Margaret Staggers, D-Fayette, an emergency room physician in Beckley, isn’t sure if she intends to propose a bill in this session, saying focus needs to be on education. She pointed to examples with positive results in Mingo County and in Beckley.
“Education is the key, and registration,” the delegate said.
Staggers feels a one-time registration fee is needed so law enforcement agencies can identify the owners.
“A third thing is giving police the ability, if they catch some 18-year-old on the road drunk and carrying six-packs of beer, to just impound the ATV until the fine is paid,” she said.
“Police have no motivation to do that right now. If a fine is not paid, departments like the sheriff’s department or whatever department could sell the ATV at an auction and keep the money. Now you’ve got police thinking about ATVs.”
Coria is convinced most West Virginians would prefer to see ATVs banned from paved roads, but in some cases, the vehicles are needed, such as weather emergencies. The last effort for an outright ban died last winter in the Senate Rules Committee.
“I can see a situation where, in a rural community, where we are now, we had a snowstorm that came about, and I bet there were some people that used their ATVs as a way to get from their homes to where they had to go,” she said.
“I understand their frustration of not being able to do that if they are banned for that kind of use. We all have to be open-minded to the fact that there are going to be instances where there can be safe ATV use. But I really emphasize the word ‘safe.’”
Last year, ATV deaths numbered 44, contrasted to 56 fatalities the year before. Coria says the number of juveniles killed in such accidents was down, a decrease she attributed to an accelerated education effort.
“It has made a difference,” she said. “We’re moving in the right direction. It’s just a slow process.”
— E-mail: [email][email protected]</p>
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