our TV kids under attack....again

[EthansDad]

Bryan brought this to my attention this morning.

Good morning america ran a news cast that ATV for kids are unsafe, and the push for a BAN for ANY kid under 16 to ride a ATV. that means full sized ATV OR youth ATV.

Here is the link to the video - you can watch for yourself.

link:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/atv-dangers-young-driver-accidents-rise-11991884

What kills me here is this is so one sided. they have their "bad guy" target, which is not us the parents, but rather the dealers and makers of ATVs. everything in the story just focuses on that angle - even calling the sales of ATVs to youth an "epidemic".

Its very sad anytime a young one passes, but the ATV is not to blame. its an easy target, and frankly ATVs on a whole are becoming a fast target of "greenies" to ban, especially when kids are involved. This is #3 attempt in 12 months??! lead laws, child safety act, now this?

we all know what it takes to be a responsible parent, especially when your kids are involved in an activity where they can get hurt. this includes crossing the street, riding a bike, car safety, etc. what bugs me again is at no time do they talk / interview the parents. If I saw a kid riding over his head with no safety gear on, I'd go stop him, find his dad, and tear dad a new one. flat out child endangerment - we have laws for dumb parents. why not enforce those?

it does not take much to find hundreds of pics of kids doing unsafe things on the internet. jumping bikes with no helmets, jumping mini motocycles over RVs, tricks on skate boards, the list goes on. how long is it going to take for the "greenies" to ban that stuff too? what gives them the right to tell responsible parents what their kids can and can not do?

What next? I'm sure they will lean on an already weak industry with regulations and other bull crap until it does not make financial sense for companies like DRR, Apex, Cobra, etc to make youth quads.

If anyone sees the government arm that is doing the leaning, post it up. We'll need to get some pressure on them from our point of view.

sorry for venting, this such media bull.

-EA

[Ride1Rob]

Seems to me that parent in the video wants to blame someone else for her childs death. My heart goes out to her but she allowed her daughter on the bike and it seems she had an issue negotiating the bike. I wouldn't be comfortable with any of my kids riding an ATV along a cliff edge. Not a very smart decision if you ask me. :(

[don bassani]

I will NOT watch good morning america anymore !!

[edwardsp&b]

Well put Eric, I wanted to type this up and link it yesterday, but I was so pissed I just let it go.

I love how they jump from a little girl (whom I feel very sorry for) on a Honda Utility piece of crap, to Drr's and Apex's racing. The two arent even the same!

The Honda, Im willing to bet, had a sticker on it that said NO ONE UNDER 16 on it. The racing quad's they are attacking are quads made for KIDS!!!! I dont own a utility quad because I would act like an idiot on it and get hurt. You cant ride those quads like a retard or they will flip.

And very good point Rob, after seeing the video I stopped it to see how far a drop off that was. WOW!! Not very smart. I still feel very bad for them, but racing had nothing to do with that incident.
Bryan

[hwf-racing]

Yeah, they had more on nightline about how unsafe our sport is, they said 150 kids died this year on ATV's. However, they catorogize go carts and utv's as atv's. How about all the kids that get hurt in football. 2 kids off of Hunter's spring ball team played football this fall they both broke their legs. 2 kids in Jacksonville little league game playing the outfield ran into eachother and one died from his injuries eariler this year. The list goes on and on, we as parents know this but we try to buy the best saftey equipment for our kids in what sport they play. This is just another stab at out sport by the media. Derek

[greenmachine70]

That girl was riding that ute foolishly on the beach. If she were mine, she would have been riding on the back. I am sorry for her parents loss, but they paid for and signed the release for THEIR daughter to ride an oversized utility quad on the side of a freakin mountain with no guardrails. The idiots on the news show need to spend a weekend at a track and a peewee football field. Lets compare acidents and injuries after that.
It is just a bunch of uninformed newscasters reading what they are told and not educating themselves before their employer makes them look stupid.

[Hollywoodracing]

Well, I have a few words to add on this. The woman who did the filming of this told us that she was doing a positive story on the growing sport of ATV racing. She followed my daughter around all day and interviewed both of us as well as many others. When I was explaining all of the safety gear and training and practicing that goes into it she listened intently. All that made it to the air was a light hearted comment about "it's all part of the sport" which was shown right after a clip of a racer being taken off the track by EMS on a backboard.

We all are angry! She came to our track where we all are racing families and made us look like bafoons!

My wife wrote this and sent it to her the day after it aired. I also encourage everyone to send this woman an email letting her know how you feel.
Her email address is this meganchuchmach@gmail.com





I just sent this to Megan Courtney Chuchmach on Facebook, the one who did the piece on ABC about ATVs....

"We could NOT believe our eyes when we saw the piece on ATVs on the news. Amazing... Typical media, twisting everything.

There is NOTHING similar about that poor 12 year old in Costa Rica and the children in motocr...oss. While the story about the 12 year old girl IS tragic, as a parent, I would NEVER allow an UNEXPERIENCED CHILD on an ADULT machine. Let alone with only a small helmet and goggles... riding in Costa Rica next to a cliff! Don't compare the two because there is NO comparison.

There are injuries in EVERY sport. Football, basketball, skiing, snowboarding... There are risks in EVERY sport.

And how dare you/ABC portraying my husband as "taking the injury in stride" regarding the boy with the back injury.... HOW DARE YOU?!

You want a solid take on things? How about referencing my 14 year old step-daughter's note on Facebook. You're friends with her on here. Go look. She has more common sense than anyone at ABC about the topic.

Also, how about you wonder on over to MXWalden's site, the track you were at... How about you explain your take on the story to everyone there? http://009d176.netsolhost.com/phpBB-2.0.21/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6412

Go ahead. Sign up. Join the forum. I bet you won't."
See More

[121dad]

also Jarrid Jennings interviewed listing all his broken bones races bikes not quads

[EthansDad]

Well, I have a few words to add on this. The woman who did the filming of this told us that she was doing a positive story on the growing sport of ATV racing. She followed my daughter around all day and interviewed both of us as well as many others. When I was explaining all of the safety gear and training and practicing that goes into it she listened intently. All that made it to the air was a light hearted comment about "it's all part of the sport" which was shown right after a clip of a racer being taken off the track by EMS on a backboard.



also Jarrid Jennings interviewed listing all his broken bones races bikes not quads

typical media. they already have the angle in mind for the story, quads are "evil" and all they are doing are looking for sound bites and clips to show to make their story true. EVEN IF THEY ARE IN NO WAY TRUE!!! they lie to get it, don't bother to gather facts, and when told wisdom from a race dad about safety, all they do is quote him out of context to again make their made up story sound true. unbelievable.

We should get another media outlet to run a story on how full of crap GMA and nightline are for piling on top of a families tragedy to push their agenda to ban quads for kids - and doing it through lies, made up editing and zero fact finding.

[coffing918]

that lil girl only had on a bicycle helmet!!!!!!!!!

[bigdeal00]

Very sad . I wouldnt let my son WALK close to a cliff like that let alone ride ANYTHING up there . She could have died if she fell from there just hiking. I think you should have to take a common sense test before having children . Ones I Q or education has no bearing on common sense. Im very sorry for their loss but that was a parental mistake. The media should look at them not ATVS!:confused: