BURNSVILLE, Minn. (AP) – Keith Grundhauser spent hours tearing around a dusty parking lot on a big green ATV, shifting his weight from side-to-side through curves and leaning back hard during panic stops to keep the wheels on the ground.

Now 19, he started riding all-terrain vehicles when most children were still stuck on bicycles. It wasn’t until recently that he got formal training.

A $100 check from the maker of his new ATV persuaded him to take a class in riding the popular vehicles, which often leave riders with sore thumbs and shoulders from gripping the throttle and hanging onto handlebars.

“Everyone thinks they know everything, but they don’t,” Grundhauser said.

More people are being killed and injured on all-terrain vehicles as the number of riders increases, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. In response, some manufacturers are providing incentives to draw riders to safety courses.

Marlys Knutson, a spokeswoman for Minnesota-based ATV manufacturer Polaris, said the company cancels customers’ one-year warranties if they don’t take an in-dealership safety course.

Safety experts emphasize that children might not be trained or strong enough to handle the speedy machines that weigh hundreds of pounds. Advocacy groups are lobbying to reform ATV regulations to make sure children are prepared to handle them before they hit the trails.

Of the almost 340 ATV accidents in Minnesota last year – 24 of which were fatal – 133 of the riders were between the ages of 10 and 20, according to the state’s Department of Natural Resources. Five of the deaths were children under 16.

According to the CPSC, children under 16 accounted for one-third of the almost 6,000 ATV-related deaths in the nation between 1982 and 2003. Of accidents where the engine size and age of the driver were known, 86 percent involved children using adult-sized ATVs.

Teens “feel that they are immortal,” said Dave Hendricks, president of the ATV Association of Minnesota, the largest rider group in the country with 11,000 members.

The group is lobbying for state legislation that would require safety training for children or anyone with recorded violations like driving recklessly.

According to Hendricks, a certified safety instructor, state law allows children from age 12 to 15 to ride ATVs on public property if they have taken the DNR safety course; the state cannot enforce those rules on private land.

Nationally, the ATV Safety Institute recommends children under 16 only ride ATVs equipped with devices that limit speeds to no more than 15 mph, said Mike Mount, a spokesman for the Irvine, Calif.-based nonprofit institute.

But as the number of injuries and deaths grows, the rules of the trail could change. Earlier this month, the chairman of the CPSC, Hal Stratton, sent a memo to his staff ordering a top-to-bottom review of national safety standards for ATVs.

Children are particularly at risk because the heavy machines can pin and suffocate them, said Carolyn Anderson, president of the Massachusetts-based Concerned Families for ATV Safety. Group members know firsthand how dangerous the machines can be: All have lost children in ATV accidents.

Anderson said her son James, 14, was in an ATV accident while vacationing with a friend’s family last August. He had never been on one before and he had never had safety training.

Anderson and her husband did not know their son would be riding an ATV, and they knew next to nothing about the risks involved.

Knutson said a lack of parental supervision is what causes the majority of accidents among children. Dealers are obligated to ask parents if children are going to ride the adult-sized vehicles.

“It’s really up to the parent – there’s nobody that looks in the back yard to make sure that a kid that is too small is riding an appropriate ATV,” Knutson said.

Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the CPSC, said the sport’s growing popularity is a contributing factor to increased injury statistics. Nationwide, there were 1.9 million ATVs in use in 1993. By 2003, that number had jumped to 6.2 million.

Anderson said groups like hers will continue trying to educate people about the risks – partly as a way to cope with grief.

“I guess I thought on some level that if I work really hard and put a lot of energy into it, it’ll have a good outcome,” she said. “This was subconscious, but I really thought I’d get him back.”

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