THUNDER BAY — The OPP is trying to raise awareness of the growing number of incidents of serious injuries resulting from helmets being worn improperly or not being worn at all by off-road vehicle users.
In a social media post, it calls year-to-date numbers "alarming," and warns that drivers and passengers who don't wear helmets are at an elevated risk of serious injury or death.
So far, in 2024, there have been seven such incidents reported in Northwestern Ontario.
Constable Andrea DeGagne said Tuesday she believes all of them involved all-terrain vehicles.
"It's definitely something that we're facing more prominently this year than we have in the past five years.
"In the last two weeks, we've had two deaths for individuals involved in accidents who were not wearing helmets, were rushed to medical attention and didn't survive."
DeGagne said that in the Northwest region prior to this year, the last time an off-road vehicle driver died in OPP territory from injuries suffered while not wearing a helmet was in 2020.
"So these numbers are huge. It's more than we've seen in the last five years combined in the last two weeks."
She said officers hear all kinds of excuses from operators driving without a helmet.
"What we need them to know is that helmets do save lives off-road. Vehicle drivers are much safer with a helmet on in the event of a crash."
DeGagne said police are doing their best to educate people any way they can and that during patrols around ATV trails, they are on the lookout for this kind of unsafe driving behaviour.
Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act requires all riders on any sort of off-road vehicle to wear an approved motorcycle helmet when venturing off their own property.
