If the Sun Journal had given its editorial on ATVs (June 4) a moment’s thought before comparing the injury rate of snowmobiles to ATV’s, it would have realized that although the snowmobile injury rate is 186 per 82,000 registrations, and the ATV rate is 300 to 62,000 registrations; snowmobiles can be ridden at most four months of the year and less in many years.

ATVs can be ridden nine months of the year and my son rides his 12 months of the year. Pro-rate that and you get an annual rate of injury for snowmobiles of 744 to 400 for ATVs.

Snowmobilers get a rebate of their excise tax to the town for trail building and maintenance while ATVs get nothing. There are no subsidized trails to keep ATVs off private property, a legitimate concern. If the registration goes to $70, I will simply not register and stay on my own land – no hardship for me, since I do this anyway.

If that is the purpose of the law, let’s be truthful about it and allow those people who don’t have property to sell their ATVs to out-of-staters who don’t have the same problems.

Marilyn Burgess, Leeds