Community-based education and public awareness for all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and side-by-side (SxS) safety to reduce roadway deaths and injuries : preventing roadway deaths and injuries from off-road vehicle crashes : research report summary.
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Summary
This report summarizes the activities and findings of a community-based education and public awareness initiative aimed at reducing deaths and injuries from All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) and Side-by-Side (SxS) crashes, particularly those occurring on public roadways. The research is motivated by the critical safety issue that while ATVs and SxSs are designed exclusively for off-road use, more than half of all fatalities involving these vehicles occur on public roads. Roadway crashes also result in more severe injuries than off-road incidents. The authors identify a significant gap in knowledge and awareness among riders and the general public regarding these risks, attributing the high crash rates to vehicle design limitations, lack of operator training, and hazardous roadway conditions such as speed differentials. To address this knowledge gap, the program utilizes a multi-disciplinary approach funded by the SAFER-SIM University Transportation Center. The core intervention is the Safety Tips for ATV Riders (STARs) program, a school-based educational initiative targeting adolescents aged 12–15. The curriculum centers on ten safety tips, with a primary emphasis on the directive “Don’t Ride on the Road.” The program employs interactive methods, including discussions on helmet use and demonstrations using a mobile ATV simulator. In addition to the school program, the initiative conducts professional conferences and community outreach events, such as the Iowa state FFA conference and the Iowa-Illinois Farm Progress Show, to reach adult riders and stakeholders. Recent expansions include the addition of SxS safety content to the STARs curriculum and the acquisition of interactive demonstration equipment and software to enhance educational materials. The report presents specific data demonstrating the prevalence of risky behaviors and the efficacy of the interventions. Surveys of students participating in the STARs program revealed that three-fourths had ridden an ATV, and 81% reported riding on public roads. Similarly, surveys of adult attendees at the Farm Progress Show indicated that over 90% had ridden an ATV, with 73% admitting to roadway use. The STARs program has been delivered to over 15,000 students across more than 50 schools. Evidence shows that the program successfully increases short-term safety knowledge. Preliminary one-year follow-up studies, which matched schools and grades, found significant knowledge retention and a statistically significant decrease in the proportion of students reporting roadway riding, dropping from 60% to 46% (p<0.001). The significance of this work lies in its successful integration of engineering, simulation technology, and public health education to prevent injury. The program has secured further funding from the Iowa Department of Transportation to extend awareness efforts to county engineers, law enforcement, and emergency medical services providers. By targeting both adolescent riders through school programs and adult users through community outreach, the initiative addresses the critical lack of awareness regarding the dangers of off-road vehicle use on public roads. The findings suggest that structured, interactive educational interventions can effectively modify safety knowledge and reduce hazardous riding behaviors, offering a scalable model for injury prevention in the field of transportation safety.
Key finding
After participating in the STARs school-based program, the proportion of students reporting riding an ATV on public roads fell from 60% to 46% at one-year follow-up (p<0.001).
Methodology
survey
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (7 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | rosap | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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- Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation
- Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes