Carbonear ATV advocate calls for more co-operation between towns and users

When Carbonear’s Adam Hindy hears about tragedies like the ones in the metro region in the last few days, he thinks of the people affected by them.

“It is very unfortunate,” he said. “A lot of these things, all most all of them are preventable.”

Early Tuesday morning, a 50-year-old ATV driver was killed on the Trans-canada Highway just outside St. John’s. It came just a couple of days after a motorcyclist was killed after a collision with a dirt bike in Conception Bay South.

In the days that follow tragedies like these, people take social media and often question what happened while debating what, if anything, can be done about it.

For places on the highway where ATVS frequently cross, Hindy wondered whether the government could put recreational corridors where the vehicles can cross safely.

“The amount of ATVS now have grown exponentially, even in the past couple of years,” he said.

Through his work with the Conception Bay North Trailway, Hindy spends a lot of his time advocating for safe ATV usage and working with towns to help ensure that happens.

He has been heavily involved with establishing a multi-use trail system through Conception Bay North along the old railbed and has encouraged towns to allow ATVS on their roads in certain areas of their towns.

“I think we need more towns to come on board with an embrace and support strategy,” said Hindy.

Hindy believes towns need to have a strategy to address the ATV situation in their towns. Many people move to these communities because it offers them some form of recreational freedom that doesn’t exist in the city.

If riders have access to approved routes to get to where they need to, they’d be less inclined to careen dangerously through public streets.

Hindy points at approved routes through Corner Brook, Deer Lake and even his hometown of Carbonear where they have worked as proof of the effectiveness of approved routes.

“I think towns need to understand that this is not something that is going to go away,” said Hindy. “The more that we put up a wall for this, the more problems we’re going to have because are still going to find a way to get to where they’re going.”

In the days following the latest tragedies, there has been plenty of discussion about ATV usage on highways and public roads, as well as regulations regarding their use.

Some have called for ATV use to be even more regulated.

Bay Roberts ATV user Jason Hodder believes the regulations that exist are the right ones, but that riders need to pay more attention to them.

“People have to respect the machine they’re using,” he said.

Hodder also works with the C.B.N. Trailway Association and he thinks education is a key component that can help alleviate worries in the future, especially when it comes to parents educating their children on how best to use an ATV.

He doesn’t see the need for extra regulations just a need for people to start following the ones that are already in place.

“The regulations are there for everyone’s safety,” he said.

Above all, one thing is true of these incidents. They are avoidable, and it takes riders and motorists to ensure they don’t happen again.

“We all have a part to play in it,” said Hindy. “Everyone kind of has to be on their game all of the time.”