Drunks, carelessness cause ATV injury epidemic

KUUJJUAQ — Here’s a small sample of the horrific accidents involving all-terrain vehicles that have taken place in Nunavik this summer, every week, at all hours of the day, in each community:

* At an intersection in Kuujjuaq, an ATV and a pickup truck collide, injuring three adults. One risks losing a leg. Police say alcohol was a factor in this accident;
* A tour around Kuujjuaq on an ATV ends in tragedy, as the ATV and a pick-up truck collide, leaving three young girls lying gravely hurt in the road: their injuries range from open, compound fractures to head injuries;
* A head-on collision of two ATVs in Salluit sees a mother with her daughter thrown off her ATV, and a man, traveling with his young son, tossed on to the street, where he lies bleeding from his nose and mouth, a bottle of booze still stuck in his back pocket. The injured are all medevaced to Montreal where the girl has cranial surgery and the man is fighting for his life in hospital.

Statistics show inexperience, speed, and intoxication lead to most ATV accidents. About 90 per cent involve young people as either passengers or drivers.

And, topping off this dangerous mix in Nunavik, there’s a growing number of vehicles on the roads — 100 are expected to arrive in Kuujjuaq by the end of the sealift season, as well as more powerful ATVs and more motorcycles.

A recent study by a doctor at the Montreal Children’s Hospital concludes: “stringent governmental regulations and more public education are needed” to prevent the rising number of ATV-related injuries.

And the Kativik Regional Government and Makivik Corporation are echoing this call for action.

Last month, the two organizations’ leaders handed Quebec’s transport minister, Julie Boulet, a copy of a brief, “Off-highway vehicles in Nunavik” when she visited Nunavik to conduct public consultations on off-highway vehicles in Kuujjuaq and Kangiqsualujjuaq. This brief asks for Quebec’s law on off-highway vehicles and the highway safety code to be amended so police can start enforcing rules that are adapted to the region.

Quebec’s law now says no off-highway vehicles, such as ATVs and snowmobiles, are permitted on public roads. This means all ATV drivers in Nunavik are likely to break the law, even if they are of age, wear helmets and respect speed limits.

And, while Nunavik residents are supposed to follow laws developed for southern Quebec, the brief points out that they don’t even have the same access to prevention services from the provincial vehicle bureau, la Société d’Assurance automobile du Québec.

“The law has to be amended to reflect the Nunavik reality,” said KRG president Johnny Adams, who has also been lobbying hard to get an SAAQ office established in Nunavik.

Meanwhile, police try to stop speeding kids and to impound their ATVs. Police also carry out spot checks for drunk drivers. Last month, they charged 24 drivers in Kuujjuaq with impaired driving. Any action is going to help curb accidents, say police.

But there have been so many accidents involving ATVs that police can’t even recall how many occurred this summer. They don’t even hear about all of them because many times police aren’t called.

But police are convinced the number of ATV-related accidents is increasing, and numbers support this: Canada has seen an increase of 50 per cent in hospital treatment due to ATV accidents, and, over the past five years, Quebec has racked up the highest number of hospital cases in all in Canada — 577.

A study by Wendy Su, a pediatric surgeon at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, confirms “ATV-related injuries are increasing at an alarming rate.”

Last year, there were 15 patients admitted to the Montreal Children’s Hospital for ATV-related injuries. So far this year, there have already been nine, and the season for ATVs is still in full swing.

Of 50 patients admitted for ATV injuries from 2001 to 2004, most were under 14, and more than half — 36 in all — were from northern Quebec.

Only one was wearing a helmet. The children suffered serious fractures of the head and limbs. Those who survived often required rehabilitation afterwards.

Kids at risk of ATV injury are generally those under 16, who don’t wear helmets and double-up on one machine.

Alcohol and drug use also increases risks, and more males than females are at risk of being involved in an ATV accident.

After ATVs were first introduced in Canada in 1972 for farming, recreation and rural transportation, injuries increased. The numbers of injuries fell when the sale of three-wheelers stopped. With new voluntary standards and a public awareness campaign, numbers continued to go down in southern Canada during the 1990s.

But now hospital treatment due to ATV accidents is on the rise once again.

Suggested actions to lower these numbers include:

* upping the minimum operator age from 14 to 16;
* a passenger ban;
* mandatory helmet use;
* training, licensing and registration, and
* a total ban on three-wheelers.

The KRG and Makivik also want more help for ATV or snowmobile accident victims. They’re asking for Quebec’s no-fault insurance to apply to off-highway vehicle accidents in Nunavik. The province’s automobile insurance act doesn’t cover accidents on public roads that involve ATVs or snowmobiles.