Ride Right Rally for sixth-grade students to be held Friday at Adams County fairgrounds

ADMAS COUNTY, Ill. — Adams County 4-H and Illinois 4-H are joining forces to host a pilot program, Ride Right Rally, geared towards educating sixth-grade students about off-road vehicle safety, will be held from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Friday, May 2, at Adams County Fairgrounds, 2010 E. 1250th in Mendon.

Students will travel through stations focusing on ATV, mower, bicycle, power take off (PTO) and rollover protection system safety. Adams County Emergency Medical Services will wrap up the event with a demonstration on accident response and an Air Evac landing (weather permitting).

Several partners are participating to provide education and financial support for this free school field trip opportunity. They are Birkey’s Farm Store, Heritage Tractor, local county Farm Bureaus from Adams, Brown, Hancock, Pike and Schuyler counties, Smith Brothers Powersports, Adams County EMS and the Adams County Sheriff’s Department.

The agenda for the day is:

• 9 a.m. – welcome and introductions
• 9:15 a.m. – begin rotations to each safety topic
• 11 a.m. – rotate between lunch (provided for all students) and bicycle safety
• 12:15 p.m. – Air Evac landing (weather permitting)
• 1:15 p.m. – event wrap-up and closing comments

Approximately 150 students from Hamilton, Southeastern, Liberty and Mendon Unity are registered to attend the event.

Students will rotate through six stations.

• ATV Safety
• Mower Safety (push mower to large, tractor-operated mowers)
• Bicycle Safety
• PTO Safety (tractor-operated equipment)
• Rollover Protection Safety
• Emergency Medical Services accident response to mock ATV incident (Air Evac included)

From 2018 to 2022, more than 500,000 people in the U.S. received emergency room care from off-road vehicle accidents, averaging 700 fatalities a year.

• 12% of these fatalities were youths 15 years of age or younger.
• 15% of these fatalities were ages 16 to 24.
• 69% of ATV accidents requiring emergency room care occurred on flat terrain.