May 22, 2024 • 35 mins
In this episode of the News Bytes podcast, Kristen Almer, from the Ride Safe Foundation, shares her nephew Logan's heartbreaking story - how in just 3 minutes, the 11-year-old's life was tragically cut short in an ATV accident.
She has worked in motorsports industry for three decades and understands why safety is paramount. Her emotional recounting, paired with staggering statistics on child fatalities, will make you re-think where you keep your ATV's key.
Kristen reveals the common hazards that lead to these preventable tragedies and simple steps ALL parents and farmers must take to keep loved ones safe around these vehicles.
0:00 - Intro and overview of ATV safety issue
2:15 - Kristen Ulmer's background in motorsports industry
4:40 - The tragic story of Kristen's nephew Logan's fatal ATV accident
11:20 - Sobering statistics on child ATV fatalities and injuries
15:50 - Common factors in child ATV accidents (no helmets, improper machine size, rollovers, etc.)
22:15 - Safety precautions - securing keys, safety gear, training, not riding alone
27:40 - The mission of the Ride Safe Foundation
31:05 - Partnering with Nationwide Insurance to promote ATV safety education
33:20 - How listeners can get involved and access safety resources
36:00 - Kristen's passionate call-to-action to prioritize ATV safety
38:20 - Concluding thoughts and outro
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
ATVs and UTVs, like side-by-sides, can be found on most farms across New York.
(00:08):
They're great for work and fun, but they can also be dangerous.
And today's podcast could save your life.
Hi, I'm Steve Ammerman, New York Farm Bureau's Director of Communications, and welcome to
News Bites.
It's pretty commonplace to see kids out having fun on an ATV, but I want to give you a statistic
(00:28):
that will give you pause.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission recently reported that between 1982 and 2018, there
were 15,744 ATV-related fatalities.
Those aren't injuries.
Those are people who have died because they were on an ATV and may have been using it
inappropriately.
(00:49):
A staggering number.
They are one of the leading causes of accidents and injuries on farms.
And most importantly, they can be prevented.
Today we're going to talk about that.
The New York Farm Bureau partners with Nationwide Insurance, who's spearheading the Let's Champion
Ride Safety Campaign.
And one of the leading spokespeople of this is Kristin Ulmer of the Ride Safe Foundation.
(01:10):
Now, she knows ATVs well.
She's been a part of the racing sport industry for more than three decades.
She's been at the very highest level in the industry, knows all the players, the athletes,
the manufacturers.
So she really understands and values this equipment.
But at the same time, she knows how safety is so important because she suffered a tragic
(01:31):
loss in her family of her 11-year-old nephew who died in an ATV accident.
So you're going to want to hear her emotional story today and the words of advice she has
for every parent or person who has a child in their lives and wants them to be safe.
Thanks so much for being with us today to talk about what is a very important issue
(01:52):
here on our News Bites podcast.
This has been an issue you've been passionate about in terms of ATV safety for many years.
But you go way back with the industry, with ATVs and professional riders.
Just let's start off and just talking a little bit about yourself and your background.
Okay.
Well, thank you.
(02:12):
I really appreciate you giving me time.
So my name is Kristin Ulmer and I really have been the predominant part of my life I have
spent as a consultant in the motorsports and power sports industry.
And my area of expertise is sponsorship.
So I have worked extensively with athletes, influencers, race team owners, sanctioning
(02:34):
bodies, event promoters, aftermarket companies and OEMs.
Really just understanding how to utilize the platform of racing to accelerate business
and growth.
And this is an issue obviously the riders you work with safety is a priority for them
for the entire industry.
(02:54):
It's critical.
It's probably number one on their minds.
And we had a conversation the other day and you said, you know, we're coming up on Memorial
Day, which tends to be the deadliest weekend for accidents for ATV crashes.
So this is something that every rider should be aware of and to think about.
(03:15):
Right?
Right.
It's true.
Memorial Day weekend is the deadliest weekend of the year.
And I only had found out about that after my own nephew's fatal accident.
And I had been in the industry for 25 years.
So I think this was really the, you know, it was a big aha moment for me having been
(03:35):
involved in the industry.
And to your point, you know, we safety is so critical to everything that our athletes
do that they almost don't talk about it.
I'm going to often say to people, it's sort of like, you know, you didn't tell me that
you brushed your teeth this morning because it's something that you do and it's so obvious
and it's so obvious to everybody and each other that they wouldn't just overtly have
(03:57):
conversation about it.
It's mundane to them.
It's so ordinary.
But truly the fact that our athletes and our influencers have mastered the art of safety,
that is the very thing that allows them to do anything significant.
And of course, certainly things that are great and world-class achievements, all is derived
(04:17):
first from the fact that they've mastered the art of safety.
But it is something that they learn at a very early age.
In the very first iterations of anything that they're doing, they are indoctrinated in the
whole process of what it takes to be safe.
And as they continue to accelerate in their learning and their skill set, they are having
(04:39):
to increasingly adjust and learn new things.
But yeah, it's not something that we talk about on a regular basis.
So that's been your professional life for close to three decades.
But as you alluded to in what you were just saying with your nephew Logan, it became very,
very personal for you and your family.
(05:01):
And ultimately you started and we're working with the Ride Safe Foundation.
I know it's not easy to talk about Logan, but could you please share a little bit about
him and his story and why it's become such an important project for you today?
Yeah.
And thank you.
Sometimes I can get through it without crying.
(05:23):
Today's one of those days.
So Logan was 11 years old.
He had been, lived in a rural environment, come from a wonderful, loving family.
My brother and his wife have five children, Logan being the youngest.
And Logan had seen an ATV before because their brother had an ATV, an adult sized ATV on his
(05:44):
property throughout the duration of Logan's young life.
But nobody knew or recognized, and even myself after having spent 25 years in the industry
at that time, so heavily immersed in it, nobody knew the risks that what seems to be this
sort of innocuous vehicle that you use for utilitarian purposes, nobody recognizes that
(06:06):
that's actually the deadliest vehicle.
Well, it is the leading cause of fatalities for children on America's farms.
And so Logan, essentially he got off the school bus on Friday, 24th, 2013, late in the afternoon,
about 2.33 o'clock.
My brother had parked his adult sized ATV in the driveway that earlier that morning.
(06:31):
My brother's intention was to teach his 12 year old son how to ride.
And he had given his 12 year old son instructions telling him that he needed to have his safety
certification, which any child can find online.
He needed to have that completed before his father had gotten home from work.
Because when his father had gotten home from work, he wanted to see the verification that
(06:53):
Hunter, the older boy, had gone through the process.
And then he would teach him, begin the process and begin to teach him how to ride.
It was a big hunting family.
And so Hunter was of age.
While Hunter was in the house working on his online safety certification with a 16 year
old babysitter, mom was on a walk, half mile from the house.
(07:15):
Logan was able to access the key.
My brother and his wife thought that that key was in a secure location.
They never in there.
They were cautious always, but the boys were able to find the key.
Logan had stepped outside and he was able to start that machine.
And he instantly, you know, he's 85 pounds.
(07:35):
He has no gear.
He has no experience.
It's a full adult size machine.
Logan got on it.
He was able to start it.
And he did essentially what we in the motorcycle industry, we call whiskey throttling, which
means they get on, they pin the throttle.
Adults do this also that are unacquainted, particularly on motorcycles.
Essentially, he hit the throttle and what happens is they accelerate so rapidly that
(07:58):
their reaction is to hang on.
And when they're doing that, they're pinning the throttle all the harder.
And this is what happened to Logan.
He was accelerating very rapidly down a very short driveway.
At the end of that driveway, it intersected with a county road.
And that county road, Logan had been instructed all throughout his life, thousands of times.
(08:18):
And I mean that in no light way, thousands of times Logan had been told not to go into
that road from the time he was an infant, all the way up to him being 11 years old.
So he'd been told not to go into that county road.
Don't chase the dog into the road.
Don't follow the ball into the road.
Get out of the road.
Don't wait for the bus in the road.
Logan get out of the road, get out of the road.
And so as this is going through his mind, surely I just know intuitively as his aunt
(08:42):
that that's exactly what he was thinking.
And so he made a sharp turn, met a very high rate of speed and it caused the ATV, the tires
to slide out, clip the edge of the asphalt and that caused the ATV to flip up into the
air.
It flipped twice and the end of the handlebars hit Logan in the back of the head and it produced
(09:03):
a really horrific, catastrophic, instantaneous traumatic brain injury that killed him instantly.
And I was the first family member on the scene of the accident that day.
I mean his mother was there half a mile away and of course she had to run back on foot
when she got the call from the boys that an accident had happened.
But when I came on the property that day, I, you know, I mean I wasn't expecting to
(09:28):
hear that Logan had been fatally injured.
I just heard that he was in an ATV accident.
Kristen, there's been an accident.
You want to get over to your brother's house as quick as you can.
I was five miles away and yeah, he didn't make it and you can't fix that.
Again, I'm so sorry because he had said that three minutes, that's all it took.
Three minutes changed your family's life dramatically, obviously taking your sweet nephew's life.
(09:56):
And that's how quickly something can go wrong on one of these machines.
It's in a split second.
And I know sadly Logan's story isn't unique.
There are many, many.
Yeah.
And I, and that's to the point.
I mean, you know, when this accident occurred, because I had been so well connected throughout
(10:18):
the whole industry, I had people, you know, my clients, my colleagues, people that were
calling me from around the United States, North America, Europe, you know, we're so
sorry Kristen, you know, what can we do?
And there's nothing you can do.
And he all thought, well, I certainly thought that Logan had died because he wasn't wearing
a helmet.
(10:39):
That's what I thought.
And I, you know, for years I just told everybody, please, you know, just tell your children
to wear a helmet.
And that's what I said.
And, you know, I mean, listen, I'm a, what they consider an expert in the power sports
industry and in motor sports.
And you know, I have a high level professional business contacts with the most powerful people
in the industry, the most powerful influencers, athletes, race teams, you know, big event
(11:02):
promoters, all of these people.
And we, it's not that we don't ever talk about safety.
Of course we do, but none of us realized that there are precipitating factors to these events.
We all just say the same thing.
Wear your helmet, make sure you're on the properly sized machine, get safety certification.
Well, what happened is I just couldn't, I just couldn't rest seeing the process because,
(11:28):
you know, I try to explain to people with my, with our situation with Logan, you know,
Logan was fatally injured.
I know where Logan is.
I'm not worried about Logan and I was not worried about Logan.
And I know that sounds almost callous, but the reality is what you're left with is you
have to try to keep, we have to try to keep my brother alive for a year.
(11:48):
You know, I lost my brother that day.
I lost my sister-in-law.
I lost my other nieces and nephews.
I lost my sisters.
I lost my mom, my dad, my daughter.
I mean, all of us became completely irrevocably forever changed and altered to realize the
horror of what can happen.
So I would love if, if you don't mind, you know, we don't have a whole lot of time.
I would love to share with your audience what I have learned.
(12:12):
This organization started.
So the ride safe foundation really came because of the, you know, Logan's accident and we're
not unusual in that accident, but what is unusual about the ride safe foundation is
my unique experience, my unique life experience and the connections that I have.
And also that I'm very research oriented and I also have the ability to recall things.
(12:36):
I knew that I had, was uniquely positioned in my life to be able to, and it's not even
that I want, cause I don't want to do this.
I'm telling you right now, I don't want to every day get up and research this, but because
I know now what these precipitating factors are, that is why we exist.
We exist to be able to get to children and give them an opportunity to self-protect.
(12:58):
And we do that in a number of ways.
We lead school presentations.
We go directly to schools so that we can speak to children directly.
We have a website with some resources, which will be a forever ongoing advancing thing
as we are able to secure the funding we need to move forward.
But essentially they, this is, I'm going to go back to Logan's situation because this
(13:18):
is the aha moment that I hope that, that people have.
When I start talking to people about ATVs being, for example, the leading cause of fatalities
for children on America's farms.
First of all, the first reaction that I normally get when you talk about safety, and I think
this is anybody who talks about safety, is the person you're talking to has this resistance
because they feel like, okay, a safety conversation means an impingement on your freedom.
(13:41):
If I'm telling you to be safe, I'm telling you maybe don't do something and you might
receive it as, well, you know, we're safe.
Don't tell me what to do or what I, I mean, we just all intuitively do that.
I do it myself.
And so that's the first reaction is people perceive a safety conversation as an impingement
on their freedom.
And I'm here to tell you that there's not a single person that I'm trying to speak to
(14:03):
that I'm trying to impinge on their freedom.
Cause I'll tell you what impinges on your freedom and that's losing your child.
And then for you to have to worry about for the rest of your life, how you're going to
feel, how trying to navigate the loss of one or two of your children or three for God's
sakes and it is happening and the catastrophe that happens financially as a result of these
accidents.
So I'm not here to impinge on somebody's freedom.
(14:23):
I'm here to share what I know so that you can self protect.
The very second thing that people do is they will self reassure themselves.
So they'll start listening.
And then the first thing comes out of their mouth is, Oh, we're real safe.
You know, my husband is an, is an ex, you know, special ops military, this or that.
My husband is an EMT, you know, I'm a hospital administrator.
(14:46):
I've had a traumatic brain.
I mean, I hear these kinds of things all the time and people start telling me about how
safe they are.
And that's fine.
I don't, you know, that does make no, nevermind to me, I'm telling you for your benefit.
And then in a period of time, after they start listening to these details, they start recognizing
(15:06):
that it's not about how safe they are right now.
It does not eliminate the possibility of these things occurring.
If you don't know what the precipitating factors are that lead into it, you can comfort yourself
all you want.
The reality is, is researchers know this.
They know what these leading factors are.
And I'm going to go into them now with you.
If you don't mind, can I?
No, please do.
Because these are factors and it's not just to protect a child, but protect the adult
(15:29):
as well.
I mean, there are users on ATVs and side-by-sides that people need to understand and hear this.
So yes, please share these factors that can help prevent a serious injury or a life being
taken.
Right.
So let me, and thank you.
The, the, here's, here's some numbers for you.
And these numbers are coming from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Well, the Consumer Product Safety Commission's latest data report comes from 2019.
(15:52):
But what we know is that there have been over 4,000 children that are 15 years of age and
younger that have been fatally injured in the United States on ATVs alone since 1982.
That means they're deceased.
There are, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, between 40,000 and 55,000 children,
again, these are 15 and younger, that are going to the ER every year because of ATVs
(16:17):
alone.
So we've seen a rapid rise in side-by-sides as well, which just increases the likelihood
of it being a mass casualty event.
That's more the reality of what we're seeing in those situations.
But so in terms of children, children are fatally injured.
They are one in every five ATV-related fatality is a child.
(16:38):
One in every five.
That means that if I give you a number 4,000, you can multiply that number five times and
that's the total number of accidents.
According to the, there's somewhere hovering about 17,500 coming from the Consumer Product
Safety Commission.
We know those numbers are higher because that's just 2019 and earlier data.
There's that kind of lag.
I won't get into the reasons for that.
(16:58):
It's not deliberate, but there's a delay.
They don't know.
They won't say because they can't prove.
But at any rate, so in Logan's case, Logan meets a lot of the criteria.
So number one, nine out of 10 of these fatalities, nine in 10, there's no helmet.
That's a factor in Logan's case.
He didn't have a helmet.
95% of these cases, there's no safety certification.
(17:20):
This is a factor in Logan's case.
There was no safety certification.
92 to 97% of these fatalities, for this I'm talking about children, they're on adult-sized
machines.
This is a factor in Logan's case.
63% of these fatalities is a rollover.
This is a factor in Logan's case.
70% of these cases, I'm giving you the, this is data.
(17:43):
The 70% is coming from Minnesota, but depending on where they ride and what their circumstances
are, generally it still relates.
The vast majority of these incidents are happening in what we call the right of way.
So it's happening on the road or in the shoulder of the road.
This is exactly where Logan was killed as well.
Also now this, the vast majority of these incidents with young children, although this
(18:06):
is changing in recent years, are males between the ages of 12 and 17.
Logan was 11, but he would have been 12 in less than 30 days, so let's loop him into
that data.
So he's a male, he's between 12 and 17.
It's late in the afternoon.
It's on a weekend.
In our case, Logan was killed on the second deadliest weekend of the year.
I'm sorry, the deadliest weekend of the year, which is Memorial Day, but not only that.
(18:29):
And he was also killed on the second deadliest day of the year, which is May 24th.
And so all this data that, you know, it's taken me 11 years to go through and look at
the patterns.
I keep getting hit in the head with a baseball bat about this was a factor in Logan's case.
And so this is not an anomaly.
Yesterday I had a conversation with a mother who lost her five-year-old and her six-year-old
(18:53):
in a UTV accident.
There were five children in that UTV accident on when she lost both of her children.
In her case, there were no helmets.
There was no safety restraints.
There was no safety certification.
It was a rollover.
There was no adult supervision.
All of these things become factors.
And so this is all the RightSafe Foundation exists to do is to make sure that we are looking
(19:17):
at the data and we know what those storm clouds look like.
And then we give you the opportunity as a parent or a guardian or a neighbor or a friend
or anybody to say, hey, wait a minute.
You know what?
This one thing over here, that ain't right.
And I'm just going to put the brakes on this operation right now because it's a factor.
And if you know what the factors are, you can be safe all day long.
(19:40):
You know, in the state of Wisconsin, we have over 400 and was 494,000 ATV and UTV registrations
in the state of Wisconsin.
Last year they had 360 injury related ATV accidents, which is 0.0005%.
This incredibly low.
We had 32 fatalities and only one of those fatalities was somebody wearing a helmet.
(20:03):
So it's resistance that people have to wearing gear or getting safety certification or understanding
why do you not want to put a 12 year old on an adult machine?
A lot of people put their 12 year olds on adult sized machines.
In fact, 12 year olds are literally the most frequent age of a rider of an adult sized
ATV.
(20:25):
If you say what is the average age of a rider of an adult sized ATV, it's a 12 year old.
Those machines weigh anywhere from 500 to 1500 pounds.
If you're talking about an UTV, they can weigh as much as 2500 pounds.
The mechanism of injury is when this vehicle rolls over and it doesn't matter if they're
going zero miles an hour.
(20:45):
Speed is not a precipitating factor.
Shocker, it's not.
Speed is not a factor.
Not like, I'm not saying it doesn't play a role at all, but understand that it's not
one of the storm clouds that we warn people about.
Where these fatalities are occurring is they're occurring when people are using them just
(21:05):
usually as transportation alone.
It's like, oh, I'm just going to go to grandma's house.
If they're planning on taking a ride or going riding, they gear up.
They know I'm going riding.
They take it seriously.
That's not where these things are happening.
They're happening when it's like, oh, I don't know, I'm just going to get on and go from
here or there.
That's when fatalities occur.
And it's nothing to talk about the injuries, which are, the injury levels are really high.
(21:31):
Oh, I can imagine.
When the fatality numbers are what you just said, I can only imagine how much higher the
injuries are.
And that makes sense.
If it's just, you think, oh, it's going to be a casual quick ride, I don't need to put
on that helmet.
I want to be on the bike for a minute.
So I can understand why someone may think that way.
(21:52):
But ultimately, every time you start that machine up, again, like the professional riders
you work with, you got to think safety.
You got to think, I got to put on the gear.
And the gear has come a long way to being much safer and much better for riders of ATVs.
We live in a time when never in the history of humanity have we ever had better gear.
(22:14):
And actually the evolution of that gear has come at the price of our athletes bleeding
out and in some cases dying.
And when as an industry, those are accidents we're aware of.
And so as an industry, we look at those situations, we love those people and we don't want people
to be hurt.
And when we see those things happen, everybody, all the top technicians, whether it's the
(22:36):
helmet companies, the manufacturers, whoever it is, they're looking at the situation and
they're trying to figure out what happened so they can prevent it from happening again.
Because their colleagues are competing all the time.
Every single day there's competitions with thousands and thousands and thousands of people.
So that's why we have evolved to such a high level of safety.
Same with the equipment, the OEM, the manufacturers of the machines themselves and also the helmets
(23:01):
and all the gear.
This has come born out of an understanding at the price that has been paid of the people
that we've lost or that have been paralyzed or injured.
And so you're in a wonderful situation, you couldn't be in a better situation.
You can ride safely to my point.
But where you make a mistake is to assume it doesn't matter, that you know what you're
(23:22):
doing, that you've been riding for years, this is no big deal.
And by the way, the leading age for fatalities on an ATV is a man that's 55 years of age
and older.
Those are the leading, the highest fatality rates are men 55 and older because they're
less ambulatory.
They're using these machines as for utilitarian purposes on the farm.
(23:42):
And then they, you know, something happens, they get sideways, they got a fertilizer bag
on the machine and the fluid rolls to the right enough to cause momentum.
It's the rolling over of the machines that is one of the major factors that contribute
to some catastrophic injury and fatality.
So riding alone, that's another big thing.
If you're leaving and never telling anybody where you're going, that's another big factor.
(24:06):
So I would just say, you know, in the short time that I have, if you're listening to this,
the very first thing you do is inventory.
Do you have a machine on your property?
If you do, the very first thing you do is ask yourself, where is that key?
Where's the key?
Put the key as in a safe, you know, area like you would if you've got firearms.
(24:26):
Because there are the chances of your child being injured because of a firearm on your
farm is less than them being injured with an ATV or side by side.
So find the key, secure the key.
Number two, if you have children around you that are asking to ride these things, even
if they're using them for work and you look at it and go, hmm, do they have a helmet?
If the answer is no, your answer is no.
(24:47):
If you say, have you had safety certification?
And those are easy.
Like I said, you can get them online.
If you need official license certification, there's a process through some states.
A lot of states just offer it for free.
If you can't find it in your own state, you can go to the Ride Safe Foundation, message
me.
The process is there.
You just message us, you know, the general email and then we'll help direct you.
(25:09):
But there are plenty of programs that you can take a free online safety certification
that helps you to go through all these scenarios.
Then you'd be like, oh, shoot, I just never even thought of that.
And it's going to help you have moments.
Online safety certification.
Third thing is if you have an ATV, there are crush protection devices.
You can buy roll protection devices.
That's what they're called.
(25:29):
CPDs or RPDs.
There are three companies that make them and essentially they're a bobby pin that you put
to the back of your ATV and it prevents the ATV from being able to roll over.
If an accident happens at a high rate of speed, the first person gets ejected off the vehicle
and then, you know, they're moving at that speed.
They impact something.
What's coming right behind them is a thousand pound machine rolling with momentum and speed
(25:52):
and hits the already injured person, hits them with the full way that machine.
The way to stop that is a roll protection device.
It costs, I don't know, like 250 to $300 per unit.
Get that.
You know, so that's for ATVs.
Side by sides, if they don't have seat belts on, don't allow it.
Don't ever put children in the cargo hold of a machine ever because if they're not strapped
(26:14):
in they can fall out.
And then the other big thing is to make sure if you've got ATVs and you've got a child,
if they're 12 and you think, well, they fit an adult sized ATV.
The first thing you should be asking isn't whether they fit an adult sized ATV, but what's
going to happen if that thing rolls over on them?
So are they capable of riding an ATV that is that size?
(26:35):
And ask yourself, how do I prevent it from rolling over on them?
And if it does roll over, what do I do?
Which also means never ever ride alone.
Don't do this.
You know, we send your people send their kids out, go check the fence.
They're out there by themselves.
All of a sudden their son's not coming back.
Where'd they go?
Well, they're pinned under a machine.
Nobody saw it roll over on them and they're not there anymore because nobody could get
(26:56):
it off of them.
So these are, you know, it's just on my heart to reach every single family that has children,
every child in America, I want them to be able to just know when to say no.
I'm here to tell you that if any single one of these things, if anybody in the circulating
(27:16):
around the events that led up to Logan's fatality would have said, you know what, Logan, stop.
Like number one, my brother had parked an adult sized ATV on the deadliest weekend and
the second deadliest day of the year.
For God's sakes, you think if he knew that, that he would have done that?
No, but nobody told him.
And that's why we do this.
It's like, and if somebody had said, you're don't ever get on an ATV because you don't
(27:37):
have a helmet.
He didn't learn that.
He had learned more like, well, you know, dad's going to go cook tooling around the
road or around the yard and put you straddle child on the machine on the ATV because dad
thinks he's in control of the machine, which by the way, I know many fatalities that have
occurred because the father or grandfather is driving and the little baby is in front
of them.
(27:58):
The child reaches up, grabs the throttle, pins the throttle, the child ends up dead.
It's not about you controlling the machine.
Don't ever let them get on without helmets because then you're instilling in them.
Don't ever approach these things without a helmet.
That way when you're not there, they won't ever approach it when you're not looking.
And for those of you who think that this doesn't affect your families, that because you know,
you know, your kids never ride, those are the ones you should be careful of.
(28:21):
Absolutely.
They never ride.
That's all they do.
They just we see that all the time.
You know, kids.
Yep.
Yeah.
So the ride safe foundation, you know, and I know you're working closely with nationwide
insurance on on the safety campaign.
You know, you said people can email you there.
I'm sure there's a lot of information that you've talked about today that's on there.
(28:46):
And you know, you know, what is next for the foundation and what is is what is it that
you really are looking to do?
Obviously get the message out, which is what we're talking about today.
But is there something else that that people can do to go to to get more information or
or something that that they could use your help or you could use their help to promoting
(29:08):
this this work?
Well, thank you for asking.
So we have the ride safe foundation.
It's ride safe foundation, dot org, and we've got some resources on there.
There are plenty of articles that you can click on.
There's data, there's facts, there's statistics that you don't have to spend 11 years of your
life trying to track this information down.
I've already done it.
Just go in there.
Start reading on it your own.
The other thing is, you know, really what we're doing with the nationwide insurance
(29:31):
nationwide, of course, is a member owned company.
They care about their members.
They care about farmers in general.
They're spreading this beyond their corporate boundaries, by the way, because they really
want to save children's lives.
They have recognized the reason that they're doing this is because they saw the financials
and saw that the huge losses associated with power sports accidents.
It's not just the injuries and fatalities.
(29:52):
It also it pierces the policy on the power sports coverage can go to the property coverage
and people can lose their farms because these accidents are so costly.
And you've seen that happen.
We've heard about this, which is just astounding to me.
And it makes sense that people can lose their farms.
And that just compounds how impactful the story is.
(30:13):
They lose their farm.
They you know, that's just one factor.
I mean, in the case of the woman that I spoke with yesterday that lost her two children
in 2015, they had severed relationships with the uncle because it happened on the uncle's
farm.
Didn't talk to the grandparents because the grandparents thought they were, you know,
being ridiculous for not talking to the, you know, the uncle who let him ride.
Their 12 year old was the one that was actually driving the machine.
(30:33):
She felt like it was her responsibility.
She's got an identical twin who's lost their twin.
She, you know, there, there, there's so many dynamics.
It's good luck trying to keep your marriage together through that kind of stuff too.
They did.
They did.
But this is not just a small thing.
It's, it's something that just be, you know, so simple, just put your helmet on.
So when you hear these safety messages, can I just say this?
(30:55):
When you hear these safety messages, don't look at them and go wear your helmet, get
online safety certification, make sure you're on the proper size machine.
You never go riding alone.
Look at it and then ask yourself, why is that rule there?
Because we're not doing this because we're trying to yell at you.
Although I sound like that sometimes I'm so apt.
You're passionate.
You're not yelling because this is so important.
(31:17):
Because I love people that I don't want.
My God, you don't want to go through what we go through to this day.
You know, you do not want to do that.
And we can stop it.
And I, and it's one thing to lose a child.
It's another thing to have one in pain and injured.
That happens way more often.
So I'm just trying to get people to pay attention.
When you see these storm clouds gathering, you stop and you say no.
(31:40):
And then you make sure that they have everything they need.
When they've done everything right.
Sure.
Right.
I encourage it.
In fact, I encourage it at a young age.
Teach them to ride at a young age.
Teach them to ride and get them out there riding in gear.
Make sure they understand the different terrain situations.
They understand, wait a machine.
Don't put passengers on ATVs ever.
Do not ever put passengers on a machine because when you do, you throw the center of gravity
(32:03):
off and that's what causes these things to roll over.
So get with certified safety instructors in your area.
Ask them to tell you what the why is.
Speak with your local law enforcement officers.
Come to us.
If you can't get answers, come to me.
I don't care.
I will tell, I am up 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
I am accessible.
And I mean that I will answer people's questions.
(32:24):
And if you want to do something to help us.
Yeah.
We need staff.
We have to have financial resources to run these events.
We're getting requests in the state of Wisconsin, Minnesota, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arizona,
state of Oregon.
And I'm talking on the high state officials are calling on us to help them because it's
such a problem.
And I can't do this all by myself and neither can our very small team.
(32:44):
So what we're doing with Nationwide is super exciting.
They are rallying behind us.
We're going to go directly to kids, give them this message, put helmets on their heads,
teach them all the equipment safety.
And then we don't have to worry about them now.
Then we'll go to the next and do it again.
And so if you want to get involved in that, now we want to hear from you for sure.
And we want to equip you to have the conversation.
(33:05):
That's really what this is about.
We want to equip people to have to know and then to know what to say, because that's the
hardest part.
It's what to say without sounding like I'm sounding like right now, like a lunatic.
You're no, you're not selling that way at all.
Again, like I said, you're passionate and you care.
And that's that is obvious.
And you know, earlier you said people came to you afterwards after losing Logan and they
(33:28):
said, you know, what can I do?
And you said there's nothing you can do and you're right.
There's nothing to do about Logan.
But you are clearly showing there are things you can do to help make a difference.
And you are doing that, Kristin.
And we thank you so much for talking to us about this important message.
And again, this is ATVs and side by sides are on farm.
Every I'm sure nearly every farm has one.
(33:50):
And if we can let people just take a second to rethink this and to to question how they've
done this and how they let their children do this, we know that it's all worth it.
So thank you so very much for being a part of this today.
I just thank you.
I thank you for the time.
(34:11):
And I just want to remind you, if just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it can't happen.
And just because you think that your child doesn't ride doesn't mean they're never going
to encounter this equipment.
They are literally the leading cause of 63 percent of all accidents that lead to fatalities
on America's farms are due to off highway vehicles.
It's a huge number.
(34:32):
And we're here to help you so that you can make the right decision, not just be scared
about it.
I don't want to be paranoid about it.
I just want you to know what to do so that you can stop it when you see something like
how the answer to that is no instead of going, yeah, it's no big deal.
Yeah, it is super big deal.
And then correct it and you can ride all you want.
Well, Kristin, best to you.
(34:54):
Bless your family.
We wish you all the best.
And we will continue to spread the message.
So thank you.
Thank you so much.
God bless you.
Bless you as well.
Have a good day.
Bye.
Well, as you heard, that was not an easy story for Kristin to share, but it's important to
her for people to know and understand what it means to be safe.
(35:18):
And it's important for nationwide and in New York Farm Bureau as well.
Just some simple steps and thinking about safety before you climb on board an ATV or
a side by side really could save your life or the life of someone you care about.
If you want to go and get some more information, more resources on how to be safe, how to talk
to kids, just go to ride safe foundation dot org.
(35:41):
That was the website Kristin mentioned as well.
Well, that will do it for this edition of Newspites.
I'd like to thank Seth Muzur Katz for editing the podcast and thank you for listening.
As always, please be safe out there.
And also remember to always think of farmer for all that they do.
ATVs and UTVs, like side-by-sides, can be found on most farms across New York.
(00:08):
They're great for work and fun, but they can also be dangerous.
And today's podcast could save your life.
Hi, I'm Steve Ammerman, New York Farm Bureau's Director of Communications, and welcome to
News Bites.
It's pretty commonplace to see kids out having fun on an ATV, but I want to give you a statistic
(00:28):
that will give you pause.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission recently reported that between 1982 and 2018, there
were 15,744 ATV-related fatalities.
Those aren't injuries.
Those are people who have died because they were on an ATV and may have been using it
inappropriately.
(00:49):
A staggering number.
They are one of the leading causes of accidents and injuries on farms.
And most importantly, they can be prevented.
Today we're going to talk about that.
The New York Farm Bureau partners with Nationwide Insurance, who's spearheading the Let's Champion
Ride Safety Campaign.
And one of the leading spokespeople of this is Kristin Ulmer of the Ride Safe Foundation.
(01:10):
Now, she knows ATVs well.
She's been a part of the racing sport industry for more than three decades.
She's been at the very highest level in the industry, knows all the players, the athletes,
the manufacturers.
So she really understands and values this equipment.
But at the same time, she knows how safety is so important because she suffered a tragic
(01:31):
loss in her family of her 11-year-old nephew who died in an ATV accident.
So you're going to want to hear her emotional story today and the words of advice she has
for every parent or person who has a child in their lives and wants them to be safe.
Thanks so much for being with us today to talk about what is a very important issue
(01:52):
here on our News Bites podcast.
This has been an issue you've been passionate about in terms of ATV safety for many years.
But you go way back with the industry, with ATVs and professional riders.
Just let's start off and just talking a little bit about yourself and your background.
Okay.
Well, thank you.
(02:12):
I really appreciate you giving me time.
So my name is Kristin Ulmer and I really have been the predominant part of my life I have
spent as a consultant in the motorsports and power sports industry.
And my area of expertise is sponsorship.
So I have worked extensively with athletes, influencers, race team owners, sanctioning
(02:34):
bodies, event promoters, aftermarket companies and OEMs.
Really just understanding how to utilize the platform of racing to accelerate business
and growth.
And this is an issue obviously the riders you work with safety is a priority for them
for the entire industry.
(02:54):
It's critical.
It's probably number one on their minds.
And we had a conversation the other day and you said, you know, we're coming up on Memorial
Day, which tends to be the deadliest weekend for accidents for ATV crashes.
So this is something that every rider should be aware of and to think about.
(03:15):
Right?
Right.
It's true.
Memorial Day weekend is the deadliest weekend of the year.
And I only had found out about that after my own nephew's fatal accident.
And I had been in the industry for 25 years.
So I think this was really the, you know, it was a big aha moment for me having been
(03:35):
involved in the industry.
And to your point, you know, we safety is so critical to everything that our athletes
do that they almost don't talk about it.
I'm going to often say to people, it's sort of like, you know, you didn't tell me that
you brushed your teeth this morning because it's something that you do and it's so obvious
and it's so obvious to everybody and each other that they wouldn't just overtly have
(03:57):
conversation about it.
It's mundane to them.
It's so ordinary.
But truly the fact that our athletes and our influencers have mastered the art of safety,
that is the very thing that allows them to do anything significant.
And of course, certainly things that are great and world-class achievements, all is derived
(04:17):
first from the fact that they've mastered the art of safety.
But it is something that they learn at a very early age.
In the very first iterations of anything that they're doing, they are indoctrinated in the
whole process of what it takes to be safe.
And as they continue to accelerate in their learning and their skill set, they are having
(04:39):
to increasingly adjust and learn new things.
But yeah, it's not something that we talk about on a regular basis.
So that's been your professional life for close to three decades.
But as you alluded to in what you were just saying with your nephew Logan, it became very,
very personal for you and your family.
(05:01):
And ultimately you started and we're working with the Ride Safe Foundation.
I know it's not easy to talk about Logan, but could you please share a little bit about
him and his story and why it's become such an important project for you today?
Yeah.
And thank you.
Sometimes I can get through it without crying.
(05:23):
Today's one of those days.
So Logan was 11 years old.
He had been, lived in a rural environment, come from a wonderful, loving family.
My brother and his wife have five children, Logan being the youngest.
And Logan had seen an ATV before because their brother had an ATV, an adult sized ATV on his
(05:44):
property throughout the duration of Logan's young life.
But nobody knew or recognized, and even myself after having spent 25 years in the industry
at that time, so heavily immersed in it, nobody knew the risks that what seems to be this
sort of innocuous vehicle that you use for utilitarian purposes, nobody recognizes that
(06:06):
that's actually the deadliest vehicle.
Well, it is the leading cause of fatalities for children on America's farms.
And so Logan, essentially he got off the school bus on Friday, 24th, 2013, late in the afternoon,
about 2.33 o'clock.
My brother had parked his adult sized ATV in the driveway that earlier that morning.
(06:31):
My brother's intention was to teach his 12 year old son how to ride.
And he had given his 12 year old son instructions telling him that he needed to have his safety
certification, which any child can find online.
He needed to have that completed before his father had gotten home from work.
Because when his father had gotten home from work, he wanted to see the verification that
(06:53):
Hunter, the older boy, had gone through the process.
And then he would teach him, begin the process and begin to teach him how to ride.
It was a big hunting family.
And so Hunter was of age.
While Hunter was in the house working on his online safety certification with a 16 year
old babysitter, mom was on a walk, half mile from the house.
(07:15):
Logan was able to access the key.
My brother and his wife thought that that key was in a secure location.
They never in there.
They were cautious always, but the boys were able to find the key.
Logan had stepped outside and he was able to start that machine.
And he instantly, you know, he's 85 pounds.
(07:35):
He has no gear.
He has no experience.
It's a full adult size machine.
Logan got on it.
He was able to start it.
And he did essentially what we in the motorcycle industry, we call whiskey throttling, which
means they get on, they pin the throttle.
Adults do this also that are unacquainted, particularly on motorcycles.
Essentially, he hit the throttle and what happens is they accelerate so rapidly that
(07:58):
their reaction is to hang on.
And when they're doing that, they're pinning the throttle all the harder.
And this is what happened to Logan.
He was accelerating very rapidly down a very short driveway.
At the end of that driveway, it intersected with a county road.
And that county road, Logan had been instructed all throughout his life, thousands of times.
(08:18):
And I mean that in no light way, thousands of times Logan had been told not to go into
that road from the time he was an infant, all the way up to him being 11 years old.
So he'd been told not to go into that county road.
Don't chase the dog into the road.
Don't follow the ball into the road.
Get out of the road.
Don't wait for the bus in the road.
Logan get out of the road, get out of the road.
And so as this is going through his mind, surely I just know intuitively as his aunt
(08:42):
that that's exactly what he was thinking.
And so he made a sharp turn, met a very high rate of speed and it caused the ATV, the tires
to slide out, clip the edge of the asphalt and that caused the ATV to flip up into the
air.
It flipped twice and the end of the handlebars hit Logan in the back of the head and it produced
(09:03):
a really horrific, catastrophic, instantaneous traumatic brain injury that killed him instantly.
And I was the first family member on the scene of the accident that day.
I mean his mother was there half a mile away and of course she had to run back on foot
when she got the call from the boys that an accident had happened.
But when I came on the property that day, I, you know, I mean I wasn't expecting to
(09:28):
hear that Logan had been fatally injured.
I just heard that he was in an ATV accident.
Kristen, there's been an accident.
You want to get over to your brother's house as quick as you can.
I was five miles away and yeah, he didn't make it and you can't fix that.
Again, I'm so sorry because he had said that three minutes, that's all it took.
Three minutes changed your family's life dramatically, obviously taking your sweet nephew's life.
(09:56):
And that's how quickly something can go wrong on one of these machines.
It's in a split second.
And I know sadly Logan's story isn't unique.
There are many, many.
Yeah.
And I, and that's to the point.
I mean, you know, when this accident occurred, because I had been so well connected throughout
(10:18):
the whole industry, I had people, you know, my clients, my colleagues, people that were
calling me from around the United States, North America, Europe, you know, we're so
sorry Kristen, you know, what can we do?
And there's nothing you can do.
And he all thought, well, I certainly thought that Logan had died because he wasn't wearing
a helmet.
(10:39):
That's what I thought.
And I, you know, for years I just told everybody, please, you know, just tell your children
to wear a helmet.
And that's what I said.
And, you know, I mean, listen, I'm a, what they consider an expert in the power sports
industry and in motor sports.
And you know, I have a high level professional business contacts with the most powerful people
in the industry, the most powerful influencers, athletes, race teams, you know, big event
(11:02):
promoters, all of these people.
And we, it's not that we don't ever talk about safety.
Of course we do, but none of us realized that there are precipitating factors to these events.
We all just say the same thing.
Wear your helmet, make sure you're on the properly sized machine, get safety certification.
Well, what happened is I just couldn't, I just couldn't rest seeing the process because,
(11:28):
you know, I try to explain to people with my, with our situation with Logan, you know,
Logan was fatally injured.
I know where Logan is.
I'm not worried about Logan and I was not worried about Logan.
And I know that sounds almost callous, but the reality is what you're left with is you
have to try to keep, we have to try to keep my brother alive for a year.
(11:48):
You know, I lost my brother that day.
I lost my sister-in-law.
I lost my other nieces and nephews.
I lost my sisters.
I lost my mom, my dad, my daughter.
I mean, all of us became completely irrevocably forever changed and altered to realize the
horror of what can happen.
So I would love if, if you don't mind, you know, we don't have a whole lot of time.
I would love to share with your audience what I have learned.
(12:12):
This organization started.
So the ride safe foundation really came because of the, you know, Logan's accident and we're
not unusual in that accident, but what is unusual about the ride safe foundation is
my unique experience, my unique life experience and the connections that I have.
And also that I'm very research oriented and I also have the ability to recall things.
(12:36):
I knew that I had, was uniquely positioned in my life to be able to, and it's not even
that I want, cause I don't want to do this.
I'm telling you right now, I don't want to every day get up and research this, but because
I know now what these precipitating factors are, that is why we exist.
We exist to be able to get to children and give them an opportunity to self-protect.
(12:58):
And we do that in a number of ways.
We lead school presentations.
We go directly to schools so that we can speak to children directly.
We have a website with some resources, which will be a forever ongoing advancing thing
as we are able to secure the funding we need to move forward.
But essentially they, this is, I'm going to go back to Logan's situation because this
(13:18):
is the aha moment that I hope that, that people have.
When I start talking to people about ATVs being, for example, the leading cause of fatalities
for children on America's farms.
First of all, the first reaction that I normally get when you talk about safety, and I think
this is anybody who talks about safety, is the person you're talking to has this resistance
because they feel like, okay, a safety conversation means an impingement on your freedom.
(13:41):
If I'm telling you to be safe, I'm telling you maybe don't do something and you might
receive it as, well, you know, we're safe.
Don't tell me what to do or what I, I mean, we just all intuitively do that.
I do it myself.
And so that's the first reaction is people perceive a safety conversation as an impingement
on their freedom.
And I'm here to tell you that there's not a single person that I'm trying to speak to
(14:03):
that I'm trying to impinge on their freedom.
Cause I'll tell you what impinges on your freedom and that's losing your child.
And then for you to have to worry about for the rest of your life, how you're going to
feel, how trying to navigate the loss of one or two of your children or three for God's
sakes and it is happening and the catastrophe that happens financially as a result of these
accidents.
So I'm not here to impinge on somebody's freedom.
(14:23):
I'm here to share what I know so that you can self protect.
The very second thing that people do is they will self reassure themselves.
So they'll start listening.
And then the first thing comes out of their mouth is, Oh, we're real safe.
You know, my husband is an, is an ex, you know, special ops military, this or that.
My husband is an EMT, you know, I'm a hospital administrator.
(14:46):
I've had a traumatic brain.
I mean, I hear these kinds of things all the time and people start telling me about how
safe they are.
And that's fine.
I don't, you know, that does make no, nevermind to me, I'm telling you for your benefit.
And then in a period of time, after they start listening to these details, they start recognizing
(15:06):
that it's not about how safe they are right now.
It does not eliminate the possibility of these things occurring.
If you don't know what the precipitating factors are that lead into it, you can comfort yourself
all you want.
The reality is, is researchers know this.
They know what these leading factors are.
And I'm going to go into them now with you.
If you don't mind, can I?
No, please do.
Because these are factors and it's not just to protect a child, but protect the adult
(15:29):
as well.
I mean, there are users on ATVs and side-by-sides that people need to understand and hear this.
So yes, please share these factors that can help prevent a serious injury or a life being
taken.
Right.
So let me, and thank you.
The, the, here's, here's some numbers for you.
And these numbers are coming from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Well, the Consumer Product Safety Commission's latest data report comes from 2019.
(15:52):
But what we know is that there have been over 4,000 children that are 15 years of age and
younger that have been fatally injured in the United States on ATVs alone since 1982.
That means they're deceased.
There are, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, between 40,000 and 55,000 children,
again, these are 15 and younger, that are going to the ER every year because of ATVs
(16:17):
alone.
So we've seen a rapid rise in side-by-sides as well, which just increases the likelihood
of it being a mass casualty event.
That's more the reality of what we're seeing in those situations.
But so in terms of children, children are fatally injured.
They are one in every five ATV-related fatality is a child.
(16:38):
One in every five.
That means that if I give you a number 4,000, you can multiply that number five times and
that's the total number of accidents.
According to the, there's somewhere hovering about 17,500 coming from the Consumer Product
Safety Commission.
We know those numbers are higher because that's just 2019 and earlier data.
There's that kind of lag.
I won't get into the reasons for that.
(16:58):
It's not deliberate, but there's a delay.
They don't know.
They won't say because they can't prove.
But at any rate, so in Logan's case, Logan meets a lot of the criteria.
So number one, nine out of 10 of these fatalities, nine in 10, there's no helmet.
That's a factor in Logan's case.
He didn't have a helmet.
95% of these cases, there's no safety certification.
(17:20):
This is a factor in Logan's case.
There was no safety certification.
92 to 97% of these fatalities, for this I'm talking about children, they're on adult-sized
machines.
This is a factor in Logan's case.
63% of these fatalities is a rollover.
This is a factor in Logan's case.
70% of these cases, I'm giving you the, this is data.
(17:43):
The 70% is coming from Minnesota, but depending on where they ride and what their circumstances
are, generally it still relates.
The vast majority of these incidents are happening in what we call the right of way.
So it's happening on the road or in the shoulder of the road.
This is exactly where Logan was killed as well.
Also now this, the vast majority of these incidents with young children, although this
(18:06):
is changing in recent years, are males between the ages of 12 and 17.
Logan was 11, but he would have been 12 in less than 30 days, so let's loop him into
that data.
So he's a male, he's between 12 and 17.
It's late in the afternoon.
It's on a weekend.
In our case, Logan was killed on the second deadliest weekend of the year.
I'm sorry, the deadliest weekend of the year, which is Memorial Day, but not only that.
(18:29):
And he was also killed on the second deadliest day of the year, which is May 24th.
And so all this data that, you know, it's taken me 11 years to go through and look at
the patterns.
I keep getting hit in the head with a baseball bat about this was a factor in Logan's case.
And so this is not an anomaly.
Yesterday I had a conversation with a mother who lost her five-year-old and her six-year-old
(18:53):
in a UTV accident.
There were five children in that UTV accident on when she lost both of her children.
In her case, there were no helmets.
There was no safety restraints.
There was no safety certification.
It was a rollover.
There was no adult supervision.
All of these things become factors.
And so this is all the RightSafe Foundation exists to do is to make sure that we are looking
(19:17):
at the data and we know what those storm clouds look like.
And then we give you the opportunity as a parent or a guardian or a neighbor or a friend
or anybody to say, hey, wait a minute.
You know what?
This one thing over here, that ain't right.
And I'm just going to put the brakes on this operation right now because it's a factor.
And if you know what the factors are, you can be safe all day long.
(19:40):
You know, in the state of Wisconsin, we have over 400 and was 494,000 ATV and UTV registrations
in the state of Wisconsin.
Last year they had 360 injury related ATV accidents, which is 0.0005%.
This incredibly low.
We had 32 fatalities and only one of those fatalities was somebody wearing a helmet.
(20:03):
So it's resistance that people have to wearing gear or getting safety certification or understanding
why do you not want to put a 12 year old on an adult machine?
A lot of people put their 12 year olds on adult sized machines.
In fact, 12 year olds are literally the most frequent age of a rider of an adult sized
ATV.
(20:25):
If you say what is the average age of a rider of an adult sized ATV, it's a 12 year old.
Those machines weigh anywhere from 500 to 1500 pounds.
If you're talking about an UTV, they can weigh as much as 2500 pounds.
The mechanism of injury is when this vehicle rolls over and it doesn't matter if they're
going zero miles an hour.
(20:45):
Speed is not a precipitating factor.
Shocker, it's not.
Speed is not a factor.
Not like, I'm not saying it doesn't play a role at all, but understand that it's not
one of the storm clouds that we warn people about.
Where these fatalities are occurring is they're occurring when people are using them just
(21:05):
usually as transportation alone.
It's like, oh, I'm just going to go to grandma's house.
If they're planning on taking a ride or going riding, they gear up.
They know I'm going riding.
They take it seriously.
That's not where these things are happening.
They're happening when it's like, oh, I don't know, I'm just going to get on and go from
here or there.
That's when fatalities occur.
And it's nothing to talk about the injuries, which are, the injury levels are really high.
(21:31):
Oh, I can imagine.
When the fatality numbers are what you just said, I can only imagine how much higher the
injuries are.
And that makes sense.
If it's just, you think, oh, it's going to be a casual quick ride, I don't need to put
on that helmet.
I want to be on the bike for a minute.
So I can understand why someone may think that way.
(21:52):
But ultimately, every time you start that machine up, again, like the professional riders
you work with, you got to think safety.
You got to think, I got to put on the gear.
And the gear has come a long way to being much safer and much better for riders of ATVs.
We live in a time when never in the history of humanity have we ever had better gear.
(22:14):
And actually the evolution of that gear has come at the price of our athletes bleeding
out and in some cases dying.
And when as an industry, those are accidents we're aware of.
And so as an industry, we look at those situations, we love those people and we don't want people
to be hurt.
And when we see those things happen, everybody, all the top technicians, whether it's the
(22:36):
helmet companies, the manufacturers, whoever it is, they're looking at the situation and
they're trying to figure out what happened so they can prevent it from happening again.
Because their colleagues are competing all the time.
Every single day there's competitions with thousands and thousands and thousands of people.
So that's why we have evolved to such a high level of safety.
Same with the equipment, the OEM, the manufacturers of the machines themselves and also the helmets
(23:01):
and all the gear.
This has come born out of an understanding at the price that has been paid of the people
that we've lost or that have been paralyzed or injured.
And so you're in a wonderful situation, you couldn't be in a better situation.
You can ride safely to my point.
But where you make a mistake is to assume it doesn't matter, that you know what you're
(23:22):
doing, that you've been riding for years, this is no big deal.
And by the way, the leading age for fatalities on an ATV is a man that's 55 years of age
and older.
Those are the leading, the highest fatality rates are men 55 and older because they're
less ambulatory.
They're using these machines as for utilitarian purposes on the farm.
(23:42):
And then they, you know, something happens, they get sideways, they got a fertilizer bag
on the machine and the fluid rolls to the right enough to cause momentum.
It's the rolling over of the machines that is one of the major factors that contribute
to some catastrophic injury and fatality.
So riding alone, that's another big thing.
If you're leaving and never telling anybody where you're going, that's another big factor.
(24:06):
So I would just say, you know, in the short time that I have, if you're listening to this,
the very first thing you do is inventory.
Do you have a machine on your property?
If you do, the very first thing you do is ask yourself, where is that key?
Where's the key?
Put the key as in a safe, you know, area like you would if you've got firearms.
(24:26):
Because there are the chances of your child being injured because of a firearm on your
farm is less than them being injured with an ATV or side by side.
So find the key, secure the key.
Number two, if you have children around you that are asking to ride these things, even
if they're using them for work and you look at it and go, hmm, do they have a helmet?
If the answer is no, your answer is no.
(24:47):
If you say, have you had safety certification?
And those are easy.
Like I said, you can get them online.
If you need official license certification, there's a process through some states.
A lot of states just offer it for free.
If you can't find it in your own state, you can go to the Ride Safe Foundation, message
me.
The process is there.
You just message us, you know, the general email and then we'll help direct you.
(25:09):
But there are plenty of programs that you can take a free online safety certification
that helps you to go through all these scenarios.
Then you'd be like, oh, shoot, I just never even thought of that.
And it's going to help you have moments.
Online safety certification.
Third thing is if you have an ATV, there are crush protection devices.
You can buy roll protection devices.
That's what they're called.
(25:29):
CPDs or RPDs.
There are three companies that make them and essentially they're a bobby pin that you put
to the back of your ATV and it prevents the ATV from being able to roll over.
If an accident happens at a high rate of speed, the first person gets ejected off the vehicle
and then, you know, they're moving at that speed.
They impact something.
What's coming right behind them is a thousand pound machine rolling with momentum and speed
(25:52):
and hits the already injured person, hits them with the full way that machine.
The way to stop that is a roll protection device.
It costs, I don't know, like 250 to $300 per unit.
Get that.
You know, so that's for ATVs.
Side by sides, if they don't have seat belts on, don't allow it.
Don't ever put children in the cargo hold of a machine ever because if they're not strapped
(26:14):
in they can fall out.
And then the other big thing is to make sure if you've got ATVs and you've got a child,
if they're 12 and you think, well, they fit an adult sized ATV.
The first thing you should be asking isn't whether they fit an adult sized ATV, but what's
going to happen if that thing rolls over on them?
So are they capable of riding an ATV that is that size?
(26:35):
And ask yourself, how do I prevent it from rolling over on them?
And if it does roll over, what do I do?
Which also means never ever ride alone.
Don't do this.
You know, we send your people send their kids out, go check the fence.
They're out there by themselves.
All of a sudden their son's not coming back.
Where'd they go?
Well, they're pinned under a machine.
Nobody saw it roll over on them and they're not there anymore because nobody could get
(26:56):
it off of them.
So these are, you know, it's just on my heart to reach every single family that has children,
every child in America, I want them to be able to just know when to say no.
I'm here to tell you that if any single one of these things, if anybody in the circulating
(27:16):
around the events that led up to Logan's fatality would have said, you know what, Logan, stop.
Like number one, my brother had parked an adult sized ATV on the deadliest weekend and
the second deadliest day of the year.
For God's sakes, you think if he knew that, that he would have done that?
No, but nobody told him.
And that's why we do this.
It's like, and if somebody had said, you're don't ever get on an ATV because you don't
(27:37):
have a helmet.
He didn't learn that.
He had learned more like, well, you know, dad's going to go cook tooling around the
road or around the yard and put you straddle child on the machine on the ATV because dad
thinks he's in control of the machine, which by the way, I know many fatalities that have
occurred because the father or grandfather is driving and the little baby is in front
of them.
(27:58):
The child reaches up, grabs the throttle, pins the throttle, the child ends up dead.
It's not about you controlling the machine.
Don't ever let them get on without helmets because then you're instilling in them.
Don't ever approach these things without a helmet.
That way when you're not there, they won't ever approach it when you're not looking.
And for those of you who think that this doesn't affect your families, that because you know,
you know, your kids never ride, those are the ones you should be careful of.
(28:21):
Absolutely.
They never ride.
That's all they do.
They just we see that all the time.
You know, kids.
Yep.
Yeah.
So the ride safe foundation, you know, and I know you're working closely with nationwide
insurance on on the safety campaign.
You know, you said people can email you there.
I'm sure there's a lot of information that you've talked about today that's on there.
(28:46):
And you know, you know, what is next for the foundation and what is is what is it that
you really are looking to do?
Obviously get the message out, which is what we're talking about today.
But is there something else that that people can do to go to to get more information or
or something that that they could use your help or you could use their help to promoting
(29:08):
this this work?
Well, thank you for asking.
So we have the ride safe foundation.
It's ride safe foundation, dot org, and we've got some resources on there.
There are plenty of articles that you can click on.
There's data, there's facts, there's statistics that you don't have to spend 11 years of your
life trying to track this information down.
I've already done it.
Just go in there.
Start reading on it your own.
The other thing is, you know, really what we're doing with the nationwide insurance
(29:31):
nationwide, of course, is a member owned company.
They care about their members.
They care about farmers in general.
They're spreading this beyond their corporate boundaries, by the way, because they really
want to save children's lives.
They have recognized the reason that they're doing this is because they saw the financials
and saw that the huge losses associated with power sports accidents.
It's not just the injuries and fatalities.
(29:52):
It also it pierces the policy on the power sports coverage can go to the property coverage
and people can lose their farms because these accidents are so costly.
And you've seen that happen.
We've heard about this, which is just astounding to me.
And it makes sense that people can lose their farms.
And that just compounds how impactful the story is.
(30:13):
They lose their farm.
They you know, that's just one factor.
I mean, in the case of the woman that I spoke with yesterday that lost her two children
in 2015, they had severed relationships with the uncle because it happened on the uncle's
farm.
Didn't talk to the grandparents because the grandparents thought they were, you know,
being ridiculous for not talking to the, you know, the uncle who let him ride.
Their 12 year old was the one that was actually driving the machine.
(30:33):
She felt like it was her responsibility.
She's got an identical twin who's lost their twin.
She, you know, there, there, there's so many dynamics.
It's good luck trying to keep your marriage together through that kind of stuff too.
They did.
They did.
But this is not just a small thing.
It's, it's something that just be, you know, so simple, just put your helmet on.
So when you hear these safety messages, can I just say this?
(30:55):
When you hear these safety messages, don't look at them and go wear your helmet, get
online safety certification, make sure you're on the proper size machine.
You never go riding alone.
Look at it and then ask yourself, why is that rule there?
Because we're not doing this because we're trying to yell at you.
Although I sound like that sometimes I'm so apt.
You're passionate.
You're not yelling because this is so important.
(31:17):
Because I love people that I don't want.
My God, you don't want to go through what we go through to this day.
You know, you do not want to do that.
And we can stop it.
And I, and it's one thing to lose a child.
It's another thing to have one in pain and injured.
That happens way more often.
So I'm just trying to get people to pay attention.
When you see these storm clouds gathering, you stop and you say no.
(31:40):
And then you make sure that they have everything they need.
When they've done everything right.
Sure.
Right.
I encourage it.
In fact, I encourage it at a young age.
Teach them to ride at a young age.
Teach them to ride and get them out there riding in gear.
Make sure they understand the different terrain situations.
They understand, wait a machine.
Don't put passengers on ATVs ever.
Do not ever put passengers on a machine because when you do, you throw the center of gravity
(32:03):
off and that's what causes these things to roll over.
So get with certified safety instructors in your area.
Ask them to tell you what the why is.
Speak with your local law enforcement officers.
Come to us.
If you can't get answers, come to me.
I don't care.
I will tell, I am up 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
I am accessible.
And I mean that I will answer people's questions.
(32:24):
And if you want to do something to help us.
Yeah.
We need staff.
We have to have financial resources to run these events.
We're getting requests in the state of Wisconsin, Minnesota, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arizona,
state of Oregon.
And I'm talking on the high state officials are calling on us to help them because it's
such a problem.
And I can't do this all by myself and neither can our very small team.
(32:44):
So what we're doing with Nationwide is super exciting.
They are rallying behind us.
We're going to go directly to kids, give them this message, put helmets on their heads,
teach them all the equipment safety.
And then we don't have to worry about them now.
Then we'll go to the next and do it again.
And so if you want to get involved in that, now we want to hear from you for sure.
And we want to equip you to have the conversation.
(33:05):
That's really what this is about.
We want to equip people to have to know and then to know what to say, because that's the
hardest part.
It's what to say without sounding like I'm sounding like right now, like a lunatic.
You're no, you're not selling that way at all.
Again, like I said, you're passionate and you care.
And that's that is obvious.
And you know, earlier you said people came to you afterwards after losing Logan and they
(33:28):
said, you know, what can I do?
And you said there's nothing you can do and you're right.
There's nothing to do about Logan.
But you are clearly showing there are things you can do to help make a difference.
And you are doing that, Kristin.
And we thank you so much for talking to us about this important message.
And again, this is ATVs and side by sides are on farm.
Every I'm sure nearly every farm has one.
(33:50):
And if we can let people just take a second to rethink this and to to question how they've
done this and how they let their children do this, we know that it's all worth it.
So thank you so very much for being a part of this today.
I just thank you.
I thank you for the time.
(34:11):
And I just want to remind you, if just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it can't happen.
And just because you think that your child doesn't ride doesn't mean they're never going
to encounter this equipment.
They are literally the leading cause of 63 percent of all accidents that lead to fatalities
on America's farms are due to off highway vehicles.
It's a huge number.
(34:32):
And we're here to help you so that you can make the right decision, not just be scared
about it.
I don't want to be paranoid about it.
I just want you to know what to do so that you can stop it when you see something like
how the answer to that is no instead of going, yeah, it's no big deal.
Yeah, it is super big deal.
And then correct it and you can ride all you want.
Well, Kristin, best to you.
(34:54):
Bless your family.
We wish you all the best.
And we will continue to spread the message.
So thank you.
Thank you so much.
God bless you.
Bless you as well.
Have a good day.
Bye.
Well, as you heard, that was not an easy story for Kristin to share, but it's important to
her for people to know and understand what it means to be safe.
(35:18):
And it's important for nationwide and in New York Farm Bureau as well.
Just some simple steps and thinking about safety before you climb on board an ATV or
a side by side really could save your life or the life of someone you care about.
If you want to go and get some more information, more resources on how to be safe, how to talk
to kids, just go to ride safe foundation dot org.
(35:41):
That was the website Kristin mentioned as well.
Well, that will do it for this edition of Newspites.
I'd like to thank Seth Muzur Katz for editing the podcast and thank you for listening.
As always, please be safe out there.
And also remember to always think of farmer for all that they do.
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