It's not quite ATV season yet, but already there has been a death. The Saskatchewan ATV Association says combined with the eight people who lost their lives on ATV's last season, it becomes clear how dangerous quading can be.
Darrell Kroeker, an ATV instructor, says there are some horror stories from the trails. "There was a young lady that I know, who was riding up a steep hill and it was too steep and the ATV flipped and landed on her and killed her."
The Saskatchewan ATV Association is concerned about these fatalities. They're pushing the province for new safety legislation. They want the province to make it mandatory for everyone under the age of 16 to take a training course on ATV's Currently, young riders can ride quads by themselves,as long as a supervising driver is on another ATV with them
Gary Pare, from the Sask. ATV Association, says the proposal is one step towards safety. "We want to focus on the younger generation because most kids are wanting to ride, and I would like to see the laws changed."
But SGI believes the current laws are working. Currently, a person under 16 who wants to ride without a supervising driver needs to have taken a training course.
"We believe that these conditions are satisfactory right now for the purpose of ensuring safe operations for people of that age group," says Kwei Quaye from SGI.
Sask. ATV Association says that's not good enough, and also believes there is not enough support from the government for the training courses. But SGI says the ATV association asked them for $120,000 over three years to train instructors in a new safety course. But after last summer's flood claims, they can't afford the contribution.
"We are not financially strong enough to support that so we turned them down," says Quaye.
However, SGI does say they will provide a small amount of funding for the training through their community grants program. Meanwhile, the association plans to keep up the fight to make the trails safer.
