A local safety advocate says the operation of an ATV requires a number of important considerations.

Rick Noseworthy, the President of the Avalon Trailways Association, was responding to two separate weekend tragedies involving ATVs that claimed the lives of two young girls.

RCMP indicated in one incident in North Harbour, the driver was not experienced in operating an ATV. Noseworthy says ATVs are “rider active” and can be tough to operate, with a high centre of gravity.

That means you use your body weight to help turn the machine. He cites ATVs, motorcycles, dirt bikes and bicycles as rider-active. “If you want to turn, you lean into the turn, and the machines turn better.”

A 15-year-old passenger on a side-by-side succumbed to injuries in hospital following a crash near Bishop’s Falls on Saturday. RCMP say neither the driver nor the passenger was wearing helmets or seatbelts. Noseworthy knows wearing helmets on side-by-sides is a contentious issue among some operators, but he says they are essential.

He says seatbelts hold a passenger within the roll compartment and helmets protect those inside the side-by-side from things like rocks or tree limbs or stumps that may come into the compartment if the machine rolls.