A 13-year-old Crook County girl died Saturday after the all-terrain vehicle she had been riding up a hill at her family’s ranch tipped backward and rolled over, throwing her off the machine.

Amber Upton’s death highlights the dangers that can exist when children and teenagers straddle an ATV.

Though family members said Upton often wore a helmet, Sgt. Russ Wright with the Crook County Sheriff’s Office said she wasn’t wearing one at the time of the accident.

Problems can occur when children ride an ATV too big for them to handle. The ATV that Upton had been riding had a 450 cubic centimeter engine and weighed 400 pounds, Wright said.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which monitors product safety, considers anything over 90 cubic centimeters an adult-sized ATV that shouldn’t be used by children ages 16 or younger.

In a report from the safety commission, statistics show that in a five-year period starting in 1997, ATV-related injuries more than doubled to 110,100 in 2001. Of those injuries, roughly a third of them involved children under 16, the report said.

The estimated number of deaths from ATV accidents rose from 291 to 634 nationwide in that same five-year stretch, the report shows.

Mike Mount, a spokesman for the ATV Safety Institute (ASI) which offers ATV rider training throughout the nation, pointed out that in the same period, ATV sales jumped from 368,000 units sold nationwide to 802,000 in 2001. ASI is part of the nonprofit trade association Specialty Vehicle Institute of America whose members include some of the largest ATV manufacturers.

But Ken Giles, a spokesman for the safety commission based in Washington D.C., said the rise in ATV use can only account for part of the increase in ATV-related injuries and deaths.

”(Sales) explain about half of the increase,” Giles said. ”No one factor explains the 100 percent increase.”

Giles said that speed, engine size, a rider’s age, ability and training can all play a role. The vehicles are considered rider interactive, meaning a person has to shift their weight as they ride – up a hill or around a tight curve.

”I think that parents need to realize that this is an activity that carries risk and you can do some things to reduce the risk, but you can’t get it to zero,” Giles said.

Both Giles and Mount agreed that the best way to avoid an accident is to keep under-aged children off oversized ATVs.

”Just the thought of that happening is awful,” Mount said from his office in California, referring to Upton’s death. ”But we definitely want to get the word out to as many parents that we believe ATVs are safe when ridden responsibly.”

Both Mount and Giles said children should be trained to ride an ATV and use an appropriate-sized model for their age and size. Parents should supervise them at all times.

Mount said manufacturers make smaller models that weigh less and don’t go as fast. These models, he said, typically range from 50 to 90 ccs and go anywhere from 10 to 30 miles per hour.

They also said that children should wear helmets, goggles and other protective gear such as boots and long-sleeved shirts and pants.

While neither of them would say how young was too young for an ATV rider, Mount said that the institute only offers training to children older than 6.

Tom Lindsay, the public information director for the lobbying group, All Terrain Vehicle Association, said parents should base their decision on a child’s size and physical skill.

”Riders should always have the proper training and should ride within their limits,” Lindsay said.

Giles, the safety commission spokesman, said manufacturers are required to put warning labels on machines with engines over 90 cubic centimeters warning that they are not recommended for children 16 and younger.

”I don’t want to say this is the panacea,” Giles said. ”A person under 16 riding a small ATV is still at some risk.”

An even bigger problem with ATV use among children, however, may lie in the fact that it’s not tightly regulated by state or federal law.

Ian Caldwell, an ATV field representative for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department said Oregon state law has restrictions for off-road use on public lands owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or the U.S. Forest Service, but not private property.

The parks department helps manage the 630 miles of ATV trails in Central Oregon owned by the BLM or the Forest Service with money generated by registration fees. State law requires that ATV riders on public lands either have a valid driver’s license or an ATV operator permit and a registration sticker, Caldwell said. Anyone under 18 years old is required to wear a helmet, he said.

On private land, there are few if any restrictions and little enforcement, said Wright, the sheriff’s deputy.

Because of this, parents have to step in and educate themselves and their children, he believes.

”The trail (Upton) used was well used, so the machine was capable of doing it, but I’m not sure the operator was,” Wright said. ”You’ve got to know the machine and know what it’s capable of doing. Know the limits.”

The ATV Safety Institute offers training courses. Call 1-800-887-2887 for more information.

Ernestine Bousquet can be reached at 541-504-2336 or at ebousquet@bendbulletin.com.