ATV Accidents: How to Protect Yourself | Survival Science | FD Survive

Next on Survival Science, Nick and Laura open the throttle on the outdoors favorite vehicle, the ATV. They'll put their bodies on the line and discover how to safely operate these compact speed demons. Hey, everyone, welcome to this episode of Survival Science, where we put the outdoors and sometimes ourselves to the ultimate test. And today is all about the all terrain vehicle. And the ATV has been a game changer for outdoorsmen, allowing them access into the wilderness like never before. It's also made the outdoors a little more dangerous, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. About 440 people a year lose their lives in ATV accidents. That's just kind of crazy to me, Laura. It is crazy. And in fact, in 2015, over 100,000 people were sent to the emergency room from ATV accidents. And seeing how important ATVs are to outdoor enthusiasts, hunters, fishermen. We're going to see just how accidents happen and what we can do to keep from becoming a statistic. So, ladies and gentlemen, start your engines and let's do some science. Let's do it. All right. All right. Well, remember, Nick, the mud ain't flying. You're not trying. Yeah, well, you're going to be eating mud. Oh, yeah, I doubt that. A quarter of a million ATVs are sold every year. Get out of my way. It's a true all purpose vehicle, great for racing, ranching, hunting and fishing. They're agile, powerful and sometimes dangerous. Look out Nick, there's a cliff. Don't panic. Don't panic. Nick is totally fine. This was a set up stunt just to show how dangerous it can be if you're not paying attention. Wait a minute. Nick, you did the stunt, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Sure he did. I know it was actually my sexy Hollywood stunt double Jeff here. He took the fall for me. I didn't even have to get dirty. Yeah, Nick didn't want to break a nail, everybody. Slam sticks in Jeff's suit record an impact force of one hundred fourteen G's when his body struck the hill. Each blow heavy enough to break bones or cause concussion. As he rolls, he accelerates to 18 miles an hour as fast as a full on sprint straight downhill. His stuntman expertise is the only thing that prevents severe injury. And cut. Good, good. That was great. Yeah, good, good, good tumble. Yeah. You know, when you see a stunt like that, it only takes a few seconds on camera. So it happens quick and fast and all that. But there's a lot of preparation that goes into a stunt like this. If I'm on it, sitting down, it's going to be like right here. That's how it's going to it'll come in and it'll kind of end like this. Yeah. It oriented this way. Exactly. Yeah. And then it's going to tip like that is the idea. At the top of the hill, camera trickery and clever editing are used to show Jeff being thrown from the ATV to Baker. Take one marker. After rocking the ATV back and forth, he leaps off, throwing himself down the hill in a very precise way. And so when I landed, I landed back first so that it would rotate me over to my forearms and my knees. And then that way I could control each rotation as I fell one rotation. I could either open myself up to slow my rotation down or get tighter into a ball and then I could speed it up. And let's be honest, if you're an average writer, we're not skilled at opening our body or closing our body if we get into an accident. So it shows how fast it can happen. Yeah, just like that. You launched off a hill or. Yeah. So so that was really cool. And I appreciate you taking the fall and getting dirty for me. You did a great job. Jeff's tumble shows how violent an accident can be. But ATVs are totally safe if riders follow some common sense rules. Nick and Laura call on an expert to get the scoop. Nick and I have done a lot of ATV riding over our years, but there's always something we can learn when it comes to safety. We brought on our friend Ty from the ATV Safety Institute, and he's going to hopefully give us a few pointers on how we can stay safe. Right, Laura? For sure. What would you say are some of the most common mistakes when it comes to ATV riding? Well, the biggest mistake is not taking advantage of the ATV rider course that we offer. And that's free for anybody who buys a new ATV from one of the major manufacturers, but also what you have with you. It's really important that you wear the right stuff whenever you're on an ATV. A helmet, really a D.O.T. approved helmet, gloves, want to have good footwear, too. Over the ankle boots and your hiking boots are just perfectly fine for that. So tell us a little bit more about active riding. Yeah, we're being rider active, as we say. Oh, and that is really understanding that an ATV requires the rider to move around on the vehicle. You're not just sitting in one place all the time like a sack of potatoes. You're actually moving around. They have seats. They have handlebars. They have foot pegs designed so that you can do this because, you know, as you go over various terrain, you have to account for weight shifts and you have to make sure that your body is actually helping out the ATV. No slouching on your ATV and riding around. No slouching. Need to be in the game, people. Be rider active. Next, Nick and Laura push it to the edge. So with the power and speed of today's ATVs, it makes them pretty easy to flip over. And this is where a lot of accidents and a lot of injuries can occur. That's right. So for our next experiment, we're going to pull some 35 degree turns going at different speeds to see how easy it is to flip one if you're doing some foolish things. Yeah. So you're ready to man up and do this stunt, Nick? No, I'm going to leave that up to my twin brother, Jeff, here. All right. Good luck, Jeff. All right. In this test, Jeff will take a corner going way too fast. That's the one way you shouldn't ride your ATV right about now. Oh, goodness. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. Jeff corners at a high rate of speed. Momentum forces the ATV center of gravity to the outside of the turn. To make matters worse, he leans to the outside of the turn. The ATV nearly rolls. And again, it's only Jeff's stuntman skills that keep the ATV in check. Oh, goodness. Hey, good game. Yes. You really showed us how to not do it. How to really get into an accident quick. Yeah. So basically, it's self coming around. I was on the outside. I was caught off guard. Yeah. So my weight was the outside. That's what basically leads into the rollover. If you're making a left hand turn, you'd actually be leaning off way to the left and counteracting that weight distribution that you're dealing with. OK, and same opposite if you're making a right hand turn. And if you're going down a hill, you're going to be leaning way to the back. OK, so your your weight is shifting back toward the upside of the hill. And if you're going up a hill, what are you going to do? You're going to stand up and lean forward. Yeah. All simple stuff. All very basic. But this is the kind of thing that you're going to learn in the ATV rider course. Going uphill or downhill, even at slow speeds, poses a unique danger to an ATV rider. One Nick and Laura can't resist testing. OK, Laura, it's time for the high speed uphill climb. We're going to see what degree of incline it takes to create a catastrophe. That's right. And we want to know what happens to the body when that ATV rolls over and smushes right on top of it. You know what? It's your time to shine. You're the driver. Well, sorry to let you know this, Nick, but you can't get rid of me that easily because I found my own driver. Kojak! Look who's back. You're getting out of it? Of course I am. That's baloney. You ready, Kojak? He's ready to go for a ride or a roll. Let's see him roll. Here we go. So what we've got here is this old four wheeler and we've taken a lot of the mechanisms off this and made them remote control. So what we have is linear actuators here and this one on this side. We've taken the accelerator assembly and we've moved it down underneath and we've got this inline assembly here and it basically runs the accelerator through remote control on this side. We've taken our braking assembly and all the components off of here and we've moved them right up underneath the front here. And then we've got another linear actuator that actually pushes the brake when we want to brake. And if you look up underneath the front here, attached to the frame, we've we've got a bar and then we've actually got two linear actuators under here that'll steer this for us. If this thing gets out of control, all I got to do is hit that red button and it shuts the whole system down. So what are you trying to say, that Kojak's too much of a dummy to drive himself? Yes. And he needs a high tech unit to get him through tough times. Who's going first? You want to take a word for this? You can go ahead. Ladies first. Nick and Laura warm up a little before putting Kojak's custom ride to the test. So we're starting out a little bit slow. We're going on some not so rough terrain. We're going to take him on a little bit rougher terrain and just see what this thing can do. Oh, you're doing great. Thank you. All right. Oh, yeah. Your turn. All right, here we go. Look at you. Look at you showing off. Are you taking him to lunch? Where are you going? Oh! Amazing! Sorry, Kojak. Great driving, Nick. Great driving. That's what we're supposed to do out here. With their remote driving skills more or less honed, they're ready for some science. The hill awaits. They'll soon see how easy it is to lose control of an ATV on an uphill climb. All right, Laura, you ready to send our dumb friend? For a little ride and roll? Let's squish him. All right, here we go. I'm going to turn us on. Let's do a three, two, one on it. Ready? All right. Ready? Three, two, go. Here we go. Oh, my gosh. He's going pretty fast. Oh! Oh! I don't know if he's going to make it. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. It hurts. Headache. Ouch. As the ATV climbs the hill, the back wheels dig in. Without an active rider to redistribute the weight, the ATV's center of gravity slowly shifts down the hill until it topples backwards. Slam sticks on Kojak record impact forces of over 126 Gs. They cause serious injury. On top of that, he's crushed beneath the weight of the 450-pound ATV. The experiments are conclusive. Being rider active is essential for ATV safety. Sometimes, though, you can do everything right and still run into trouble on the trail. So our stunt demonstration was made up to show how easy it is to get into an ATV accident if you're careless while driving your ATV. Yeah, and a lot of times people are driving safely and they are following the rules and accidents still happen. On June 15, 2007, John Sloot of Castle Guard, British Columbia, took his son Cody on a fishing trip into the back country for Cody's 10th birthday. At one point, the trail grew tricky. It turned and went alongside a steep hill, which narrowed the trail some, but still wide enough for an ATV to cross without any trouble. John asks his son to get off the ATV just in case he runs into trouble navigating the narrow trail. John inches along the path while Cody watches. And as any ATVer knows, you lean uphill if you're going to cross it. That's what I was doing. But in this case, John's precautions aren't enough. He is nearly crushed beneath the ATV as it tumbles downhill. I just stood there with my mouth open for like 10 or 15 seconds before I realized what was happening. Incredibly, John and Cody survived the O.T. Doing everything right. And given the amount of distance that he fell, the ATV rolled over the top of him, he could have died. And so, you know, it just went to prove that even though they were doing everything right and by the book, accidents happen and you just never know. So you got to be really careful when you're out there on your ATV. That's right. And also, you need to know your terrain. And action. You might wonder what the science of filming this sequence was. Our special effects wizards use green screen technology to film the actor and the tumbling ATV in separate camera takes. Then, combine them into one seamless shot. Scene 18. That takes a lot of time and energy, but it turned out great. The magic of movie. Treacherous hills, tight corners, and rough terrain. These are the dangers that an ATV rider can anticipate. But what about the hazards you can't see? All right, Nick, for our next experiment, all I'm going to say is this one is going to hurt. Yeah. This time we're going to run our buddy here, Kojak, through a small neck strainer. Just a small, small string wire. This is more common than you think. Steel cables strung across dirt roads to discourage trespassers. Okay. Three, two. On impact, the wire rips Kojak from the ATV. The slam stick records a 194 G shock force. It's more than enough to break Kojak's back and do paralyzing damage to his spinal cord. Whoops. Wow, that looked like it hurt. Yikes. That looked like it really hurt. It's no joke. Wire strung across a trail is every ATV rider's nightmare. When riding in country you're unfamiliar with, it's always a good idea to drive slowly or even inspect a trail on foot. Next up, Kojak goes out in a blaze of glory. It's time for the big finish. Nick and Laura have strapped Kojak into our remote control ATV and he's ready for a wild ride. All right, we've come to the final experiment of the day and I'm gonna say we've saved the best for last because I don't think Kojak's gonna survive this. Yeah, we've got a few different elements here. We've got speed and we've got a sharp corner. So what we wanna do is study just exactly what happens to Kojak as he goes off the edge. Well, I'm guessing considering he's not an active rider, he doesn't really know how to use his core muscles to balance and he's a little bit of a dummy. We've said that. So let's sail him over the cliff, shall we? Okay. For this experiment, they'll bring it all together. A tight corner, a steep embankment and Kojak's trademark passive riding. With any luck, the ATV will crash spectacularly giving Nick and Laura some critical slam stick data. Three, two, one. Here we go. Oh yeah. Oh. The experiment goes off without a hitch resulting in some spectacular shots of the bone crushing crash. Momentum easily topples the vehicle whipping Kojak directly into the ground with incredible force. The slam sticks max out at over 200 G's at the moment of impact. As the ATV rolls, Kojak is twisted, slammed and crushed into the ground. It's another graphic reminder to watch your speed. Wow. No, he's not. That's unbelievable. That was awesome. Sweet. This crash was exciting to watch but the real message is that ATV riding is fun and perfectly safe. If you follow those safety rules. Well, that was a blast. That was awesome. Totally awesome. What did we all learn about taking our ATVs into the back country? Well, I think it's about two things. One being respect and also awareness. So not only are they fun toys to drive but they're also high powered machines and tools. Yeah, and we always respect our tools. I mean, you wouldn't go juggling chainsaws, would you Laura? Maybe. Maybe you would, I don't know. Well, that's a wrap for this episode. So join us next time as we put nature to the test on Survival Science. Nice job. Good job Kojak. Good black eye. Yeah.