Research Papers (2009 – 2013)

Abstract

The number of serious injuries involving ATVs is growing faster than that for any other major type of wheel – or water-based activity. In 2009-2010, there were 3,386 hospitalizations for ATV injuries across Canada-a 31% increase since 2001-2002. Although the Ontario Provincial Police was regularly called upon to reconstruct ATV collisions, little or no specific training or useable data was available to assist the investigator in speed determination or collision analysis. Since 2002, members of the OPP’s Technical Collision and Reconstruction program have conducted research on ATV dynamics, testing different models to establish useful data for speed analysis. Braking, rollover and rolling resistance testing have been conducted on ATV’s using a variety of travelled surfaces. The results of these tests provide useful values for speed determination of related ATV collisions in the real world.

Mark D. Wright