LOGAN — Lawmakers trying to come up with tougher ATV safety laws got some hands-on experience Monday on the Hatfield-McCoy Trails.
"We're absolutely the safest place in West Virginia to ride," Jeff Lusk, trail system executive director, told members of a legislative interim committee studying ways to come up with enforceable all-terrain vehicle safety legislation.
More than a dozen legislators and legislative aides turned out Monday morning at the Bearwallow Trailhead, northeast of Logan.
For many, it was a first-time visit to the AW trails. For some, it was the first time they had ever ridden an AW. Park ranger Josh Weagel offered the rookies a 45-minute crash course on riding safety.
"We want this to be a safe place for your family, or for a group of guys from a fraternity. We want everybody to have fun," he told the group of novice riders, including Sens. Evan Jenkins, Steve Harrison and Russ Weeks, and Delegates Bonnie Brown, Cindy Frich and Ruth Rowan.
Rowan, R-Hampshire, said she believed the trip, part of August interim meetings at Chief Logan State Park, would give her a better understanding of the issues surrounding AW safety.
"I felt like I needed to experience this first-hand," she said.
Karen Coria, a lobbyist for AW manufacturers, noted that the visitation Monday was tempered by the deaths over the weekend of three AW riders.
She said that brought the unofficial death toll for the year to 39, just one short of the record 40 deaths in 2005.
Coria said many accidents are the result of riders who ignore manufacturers' safety recommendations.
Pointing to manufacturers' signs on each AW, she said, "This panel has all the warnings on it. You can't miss that."
Kim Harper, a retired State Police trooper and co-owner of the AW rental company Hatfield-McCoy Outdoors, told Harrison, R-Kanawha, "They're safe out here. You put this thing on asphalt, and its dangerous."
Lusk agreed, noting that the wide, under-inflated tires that give AWs traction on dirt and gravel surfaces provide little control on pavement, causing riders to overturn their machines.
In the nearly six years that the Hatfield-McCoy Trails have been operating, almost 90,000 user permits have been issued, he said. In that time, the trail system has had only two fatalities — and both riders had violated trail rules, resulting in their accidents, he said.
While the trail ride was scheduled to end at noon, the last riders on the miles of twisting trails and steep terrain didn't return to the trailhead until after 3 p.m.
Most were invigorated by the experience — particularly Harrison, who wanted to keep riding — while Brown, D-Kanawha, looking worse for the wear, vowed never to ride an AW again.
Weeks, R-Raleigh, who has spoken out for tougher penalties for AW safety violations, said he learned some important lessons Monday.
"You see just how easily and how fast you can lose control of one of these things," he said. "The only way you can overcome that is with training and experience — training, experience and common sense."
This month's legislative interim meetings conclude today in Logan.
To contact staff writer Phil Kabler, use e-mail or call 348-1220.