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A.J.T. , PENNSYLVANIA

 

HELMET DETAILS

Model: FX-87Y

Color: Satin Red

Standards: DOT, ECE & SNELL

Successor: FX-19Y

"The ATV was so heavy that my leg broke instantly"

"I was riding my ATV on 08/23/2007 with my cousin. Dad's rule is [that] when I ride, I need to ride with someone else. [It's] a very good rule to have.

I was in a creek bed having a blast in the water and I got mud all over my brand new ATV. It's the biggest ATV anyone can get. It's a 2006 Kawasaki Brute Force 750 4x4i. It fills up the 8ft. bed of my dad's F-150 truck and weighs about 750lbs.

I was getting ready to go home from a long day of riding so I started to climb a creek embankment. Normally, we go down that part of the creek embankment, but the "rule of riding" is that you always try new things. So I made [it up] the embankment easily, but right [afterwards] there were some tree roots [on] a little bit of [an] incline. I thought I could make it, but the front wheels got stuck, so I had it in 4 wheel drive, backed up just a little bit, and then went forwards.

Normally if you do that on an ATV you can get over the object. Well, when I did that, the 4 wheeler's front tire hit the roots and it pulled a wheelie straight up; my back hit the ground first and [then] the ATV [started] to come down on top of me. [My] first instinct was to put my foot up and [try] to stop it from coming down on my body, [but] when I did that, the ATV was so heavy [that] my leg broke instantly.

The handle bars landed on my head, but thank God I had my helmet and chest protector on. I was able to get out from [under] the ATV and [began] to hop [away] on one foot.

My cousin was watching the whole thing, [and it happened] so fast I told [him] to get the other riders up near the dirt bike track [for assistance]. Thank God that there were other riders around that day.

They took x-rays [and] I have a compound fracture on my tibia and fibula and now I have a titanium rod down my tibia, and 2 screws near my knee, and 2 screws near my ankle. I will have them in until the day I die.

The doctors [also] told me that if I did not have the helmet I was wearing I would have suffered a lot of head trauma and may have died."