Hawaii has proposed a bill that would make helmet use mandatory for minors riding ATVs. Barbara Marumoto, (R) East Honolulu Representative, says

"every year they're finding about 136-thousand injuries and of those injuries 40-thousand plus have been in children under sixteen. So we've got to kind of stop these injuries some how,"

While I can appreciate the need to protect our kids, why can't these people tell it like it is? Yes, there are lots of accidents, yes there are lots of injuries. But the actual rate of injury is constantly going down and most media outlets don't talk about that. Its sad that the steps taken by manufacturers and dealers to ensure safety are going largely ignored. To give credit, though, at least this article (albeit briefly) mentioned that dealers are taking steps above and beyond law to help protect kids.

ATV manufacturers do put warnings on the bikes telling parents of the potential risks.

"We actually follow those rules, if we have someone come in and says they want to buy a quad for a five year old we wont sell it to them," says Mark Schneider, Cycle City.