Five years ago, Dr. Andrew Bernard, a trauma surgeon at UK’s Albert B. Chandler Hospital and associate professor of surgery, was listening to a paper given on the topic of all-terrain vehicle (ATV) trauma in children. The conclusion of the paper was that ATVs are not safe and, thus, children should never ride them. The paper’s finding left Dr. Bernard dissatisfied.

“Determining that abstinence is the best policy regarding children and ATVs was merely a hypothesis; there was no scientific evidence to support their judgment,” he recalls. “I felt like someone needed to take a more scientific approach to the question of whether or not children are too small to ride ATVs.”

But how does one test such a hypothesis? What kinds of experiments have the potential to produce relevant data, yet prevent children from becoming injured during testing? Dr. Bernard knew he would need help.

So he looked for an engineer.

“The way engineers look at the world is crucial for tackling a question like this. If you want to go beyond, ‘Oh, there’s another group of injured children, so children should never ride these things,’ then you need engineers,” he says. “I knew about the Wenner-Gren biomedical research facility, but didn’t know exactly what they did. So I sent an email asking if anyone could help me test the hypothesis. A few days later, I got a response from David Pienkowski.”

David Pienkowski has been a faculty member in the Center for Biomedical Engineering at UK since 1991. Specializing in bone research and osteoporosis, he was intrigued by Dr. Bernard’s request.

“I knew nothing about ATVs prior to talking with Andrew regarding the means to test this hypothesis,” he acknowledges, “but with some work, and help from Blue Grass Motor Sports, nurses and many others, we devised a research strategy.”

What have they discovered?

“We are in the process of developing a simple recipe for fitting children onto ATVs. In terms of size, there are two different sizes of ATVs, one aimed toward youth and one for adults,” Pienkowski explains. “There are differences in vehicle dimensions beyond the obvious; one such example is the brake lever on a youth ATV – it is the same as that on an adult ATV. That caused us to ask: how can a child reach a lever that is farther away than it would be for an adult and safely brake an ATV in time to avoid a collision?”

Dr. Bernard elaborates, “We believe we can supply information manufacturers can use for design changes, and that those design changes will lead to greater injury prevention.”

Another finding has to do with factors leading to ATVs tipping over, especially when children ride behind adults.

“ATV injuries come in all forms, but it is all too common for a driver to over-accelerate when going up a hill and tip the ATV. When that happens, the child suffers the weight of the vehicle and the adult,” describes Pienkowski. “We are studying the relationship between the angle at which the ATV can be ridden, the weight of the child and the position of the child relative to the rear axle and torque applied by the throttle input.”

“Given what we have learned from studying those relationships, we are surprised there aren’t more ATV accidents,” adds Dr. Bernard.

Both researchers agree that perhaps the most important lesson they have learned is that age is not a sufficient marker of who should ride an ATV.

“We need to focus on size, not age,” says Pienkowski. “Kids can be the same age and yet differently proportioned. This is a guideline we would like to see manufacturers and retailers change for the safety of their customers.”

Through the peer-reviewed literature, public service announcements and conversations with ATV manufacturers and retailers, the two hope to disseminate the fruits of their research in ways that lead to safer practices and fewer ATV-related injuries and deaths.

“Kentucky is fourth in the nation in ATV deaths, behind California, Texas and Pennsylvania—even though our population is far less than those states; yet, we know that in spite of laws and public service announcements, adults will allow children to ride ATVs. We want to offer scientifically-based guidelines that will make such riding safer.”