FLOOD WARNING Click county for more information: Ottawa, Rogers, Tulsa, Washington         FIRE WARNING Click county for more information: Woodward        

Twelve people, including three under 18, have been killed through Oct. 1 in 2007 accidents involving all-terrain vehicles, a state Health Department official told a Senate committee Thursday.

Those killed this year range in age from 14 to 88, said Pam Archer, deputy chief of injury prevention at the state Health Department.

The numbers

•In 2006, 19 people died in the state on ATV accidents, she told the Senate Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, which was examining safety issues involving ATVs.

•Thirty percent of those 2006 deaths were children under 16, she said.

•From January 2002 through June 30, 2007, 1,848 people suffered serious injuries in ATV accidents, Archer said. Total hospital charges for these injuries were nearly $33 million, she said.

•Cities with more than 13 ATV injuries from January 2002 through June 2007 ranged from Tulsa, with less than 20, to Waynoka, with nearly 200, Archer said.

"Waynoka is near Little Sahara State Park” where people ride ATVs, Archer said.

Many who are hurt there are taken either to Kansas or to Oklahoma City, Archer said.

Background

•ATVs began as a mode of transportation for farmers, lumberjacks and others to be used on unpaved terrain, she said.

•They began gaining in popularity in the mid-1980s, she said.

•Last session, the Legislature passed a law requiring children under 18 to wear helmets while riding on ATVs on public land. State and municipal parks will be the most affected.

•The legislation goes into effect Nov. 1.

What's next

During the meeting, Kevin Pipes, chief of staff for the Health Department, said the agency will concentrate in the future on having safety training "for everybody, but for kids especially.”

Health officials don't foresee any more legislation involving helmets, Pipes said.

Good, bad news

Also during the meeting, Sen. Bill Brown, R-Broken Arrow, said that accidents and deaths involving ATVs have gone down since 1980, according to some charts he's examined.

Archer agreed, saying rates "have gone down, but not significantly.”

Archer also presented the committee with information from a study between March 2003 and July 2005 by St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, a trauma center for eastern Oklahoma.

It said 40 percent of the people who were riding ATVs were involved in collisions with a tree, fence, mailbox, another ATV or automobiles.

Children more frequently are involved in collisions than adults, the data show.