A 28-year-old miner is dead and a woman nursing a fractured hand after the All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) they were turned over at Oku Backdam, Cuyuni River on Saturday.
Dead is Damion Charles of Moruka, North West District. His female pillion rider sustained a fractured right hand.
Police said in a statement yesterday that investigations revealed that Charles was driving an ATV around 22:00 hours on Saturday when he lost control of the vehicle which turned over causing him to receive injuries. He was taken to the Bartica Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
What caused him to lost control and die, probably the bad condition of the trail, poor fellow so unlucky, the pillon was more fortunate, have to thank her lucky stars.
could be that the rider could not properly handle the machine and ended up killing himself. The trails in the backdam are seldom in good condition. This is the second incident involving ATvs in a few months. The others should learn something from this. The pillion rider should in fact count her lucky stars, she might find a few missing (those that were used up to save her life).
ATV’s are not to be taken lightly. Proper safety gears must be worn at all times.The trails in the interior is not good at anytime. It is very tricky driving along these trails. i know for i did , especially around the devil mountain areas, marshall falls….. ect… ect..
These ATV’s ,as SAM says,are not to be taken lightly. Because of the extremely short wheel base (distance between centers of front and rear wheel) the turning circle is very minimal, enabling them to “turn on a dime”. This sharp turn, causes to ATV to attempt to double back on itself, resulting in it overturning. This was a common occurrence with the Suzuki Samurai, and the British Army’s Ferret Scout cars. Operators of these vehicles need to be properly trained and be aware of its tendency to keel over on very sharp turns. Also these units should be fiited with roll bars/cages to give the operator that chance of escaping death or injury in the unfortunate event of a roll over. These things may look like toys, but toys they certainly are not.