Kids in Front Or Back?

Filed in archive ATV Safety on February 21, 2007

Where should kids ride when you're out with them on ATVs? The best place is in between two adults, but that's not always feasable when it's just you and your kid.

I would suggest not ride unless it was with two adults, at least until your kid gets major trail time.

If you MUST ride with just the two of you, I'd put them in back as my first (and safest) option, especially on trails they're not very familiar with. If there's an emergency, it might be too late to talk them out of it if you're behind them and using some kind of radio communications. If they're in back, you have to really work to watch them, (get mirrors), but you don't have to worry about them going into something too fast or any other of a million things that can go wrong to an un-experienced rider.

Kids panic, and you can't always count on them to do the right thing, even (sometimes especially) when you're inside their helmet telling them to do something that contradicts what their inexperienced reactions and instincts tell them they should be doing, however wrong they might be.

Another option is to use a trail that they are intimately familiar with, and put them in front with VERY STRICT RULES about speed and course. Then make sure you're RIGHT behind them and always in a position to get in front of them to stop them in case of emergency.

That's your kid we're talking about, and there should be absolutely NOTHING left to chance when it comes to their safety and teaching them properly.