Post by Wyldcomfort on May 26, 2007 7:00:04 GMT -5
Hello everyone!! Wishing you a safe and wonderful holiday weekend. If you are headed out for a ride, please remind fellow riders to use good judgement and stay safe and set a good example. We have so much at stake and the world's eyes are upon us. Enjoy!! Lindy
Jeff Manning and fellow reporters have been busy in Michigan too!! - check it out: Also another article in the Oregonian...obviously getting all the bang they can out of their buck!!
www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1179656102210740.xml&coll=4&thispage=2
And in Oregon!!!!
ATV series the result of in-depth reporting
Posted by The Oregonian May 18, 2007 09:10AM
Reporter Susan Goldsmith had been considering a possible story about all-terrain vehicles early last summer when word came in of Justin Burger's death. The 7-year-old from Scappoose was trapped underwater in a creek for at least 10 minutes after his ATV flipped. Justin died days later in the hospital.
For Goldsmith, a reporter on The Oregonian's investigations team, the case crystallized the chilling reality of ATVs: about a third of all fatal accidents involve children under 16. It was then that Goldsmith and editors agreed to go after a story on the dangers of ATVs and why they persist.
Soon, Goldsmith and reporter Jeff Manning had filed the first Freedom of Information Act requests with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which regulates ATVs. When Goldsmith went on maternity leave in August, reporter Brent Walth, just back from a prestigious Nieman Foundation fellowship at Harvard University, joined the reporting team.
Over the course of the following nine months, the reporters interviewed hundreds of ATV riders, surviving family members, current and former government officials, consumer advocates, state officials, pediatricians and trauma doctors, attorneys and ATV dealers and industry officials as the basis for their four-part series that ran this week. They reviewed thousands of pages of documents and court cases, worked with engineers and statisticians to test ATVs and crunch fatality statistics, and made multiple trips to Washington, D.C., to gather documents and interview sources there.
Though the dangers of ATVs were well-established, it had been more than 20 years since the government took serious action to make them safer. The series revealed that not much has improved in the intervening years. Deaths and injuries continue to rise as ATVs become more popular, and the government's reliance on warning labels and training is misplaced: riders widely ignore warning and decline free training offered by the industry.
Meantime, the government has done little to examine how the design of ATVs contributes to rollover accidents, which account for a large share of fatalities. Regulation by states -- including Oregon -- hasn't solved the problem.
The series marked a major commitment by the newspaper, and readers responded in large numbers. Many were riders who said the series misunderstood and misrepresented their sport. Overwhelmingly, they said parental supervision and individual responsibility were behind most ATV safety problems. A smaller number of readers wrote to compliment the deep research and moving personal accounts in the series. Said one: "Your article today on ATVs was incredibly needed. It was a story that wasn't being told."
Editors believed the ATV story was an important one for Oregon, where riders from around the state and the country flock to the scenic coastal dunes to ride ATVs. More than 56,000 ATVs are registered in the state, and more than 160 Oregon and Washington residents have died in ATV accidents since 2000. The hope is that public debate and discussion of the dangers of ATVs will raise awareness and contribute to rider safety in the future.
You can read the series here. If you have comments or questions, e-mail editors@news.oregonian.com.
Tom Detzel, investigations editor, The Oregonian
Jeff Manning and fellow reporters have been busy in Michigan too!! - check it out: Also another article in the Oregonian...obviously getting all the bang they can out of their buck!!
www.mlive.com/news/bctimes/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1179656102210740.xml&coll=4&thispage=2
And in Oregon!!!!
ATV series the result of in-depth reporting
Posted by The Oregonian May 18, 2007 09:10AM
Reporter Susan Goldsmith had been considering a possible story about all-terrain vehicles early last summer when word came in of Justin Burger's death. The 7-year-old from Scappoose was trapped underwater in a creek for at least 10 minutes after his ATV flipped. Justin died days later in the hospital.
For Goldsmith, a reporter on The Oregonian's investigations team, the case crystallized the chilling reality of ATVs: about a third of all fatal accidents involve children under 16. It was then that Goldsmith and editors agreed to go after a story on the dangers of ATVs and why they persist.
Soon, Goldsmith and reporter Jeff Manning had filed the first Freedom of Information Act requests with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which regulates ATVs. When Goldsmith went on maternity leave in August, reporter Brent Walth, just back from a prestigious Nieman Foundation fellowship at Harvard University, joined the reporting team.
Over the course of the following nine months, the reporters interviewed hundreds of ATV riders, surviving family members, current and former government officials, consumer advocates, state officials, pediatricians and trauma doctors, attorneys and ATV dealers and industry officials as the basis for their four-part series that ran this week. They reviewed thousands of pages of documents and court cases, worked with engineers and statisticians to test ATVs and crunch fatality statistics, and made multiple trips to Washington, D.C., to gather documents and interview sources there.
Though the dangers of ATVs were well-established, it had been more than 20 years since the government took serious action to make them safer. The series revealed that not much has improved in the intervening years. Deaths and injuries continue to rise as ATVs become more popular, and the government's reliance on warning labels and training is misplaced: riders widely ignore warning and decline free training offered by the industry.
Meantime, the government has done little to examine how the design of ATVs contributes to rollover accidents, which account for a large share of fatalities. Regulation by states -- including Oregon -- hasn't solved the problem.
The series marked a major commitment by the newspaper, and readers responded in large numbers. Many were riders who said the series misunderstood and misrepresented their sport. Overwhelmingly, they said parental supervision and individual responsibility were behind most ATV safety problems. A smaller number of readers wrote to compliment the deep research and moving personal accounts in the series. Said one: "Your article today on ATVs was incredibly needed. It was a story that wasn't being told."
Editors believed the ATV story was an important one for Oregon, where riders from around the state and the country flock to the scenic coastal dunes to ride ATVs. More than 56,000 ATVs are registered in the state, and more than 160 Oregon and Washington residents have died in ATV accidents since 2000. The hope is that public debate and discussion of the dangers of ATVs will raise awareness and contribute to rider safety in the future.
You can read the series here. If you have comments or questions, e-mail editors@news.oregonian.com.
Tom Detzel, investigations editor, The Oregonian