The province of Alberta is now in line with the rest of the country in making helmet usage mandatory for everyone riding off highway vehicles on public lands.
The law came into effect on Monday and requires anyone on an all-terrain vehicle or OHV to wear a helmet while they are on Crown land, but it doesn’t apply when riding on private lands.
The call for helmets came from the high rate of injuries and deaths of OHV riders in the province.
15-year-old Melissa Faupel and her dad Ted say they always wear helmet when they go out but regularly see others without them near where they ride in Waiparous.
Melissa says she’s worn one since she started riding at five years old and has been saved from serious injury multiple times by using a helmet.
“When I was about 10 or something, me and my friend were on my dad’s quad, which was a bit bigger than we were used to, and I ended up flipping my friend and I off a hill. If we weren’t wearing a helmet, we would have gotten injured,” she said.
Officials say, on average, 16 people a year are killed in quad-related incidents.
Two out of three of those victims are not wearing a helmet.
