Thursday @ 6:30 PM my wife hit a single unmarked strand of barbed wire strung across the trail and was clotheslined off her Polaris Hawkeye at approximately 20-25 MPH. I was following her at the time.

She will recover. She went by ambulance to the Trauma Center, spent 1 night in ICU and 1 night in the recovery ward. She has:
- 9 stitches in her left bicep
- a large area of abrasion on the right side of her neck.
- a 'hairline' fracture of the sternum (breastbone)
- misc minor scrapes and bruises

I KNOW how much worse it could have been. Others have been decapitated or permanently disabled.

We have a Police report and I am considering civil legal action, therefore I do not wish to be more specific about details.



My wife is a farm-and-country girl. She has raised and shown horses, and in her life she's been bucked and kicked and stepped on and scraped off. She's not the fearful type. Nevertheless I have told her clearly that if she chooses to never ride an ATV again I would respect that. Furthermore if she asked ME to stop riding forever I would comply. She didn't give any answer.

If she were to ask this of me I would miss the sport, but never speak a word. I will not intentionally cause her to have the kind of fear I felt that night.


Gentlemen, friends, brothers-in-sport ... be careful ... and please impress upon your loved ones how important it is to be aware of fence POSTS. The wire may be invisible, but you can usually see the post.

Even if they've heard it all before - say it again.

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I may have a short attention span but
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wish you and the wife the best of luck

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mine-02 400i manual
hers-96 425 magnum

I too ran into a barbed wire fence on my 400EX in fourth gear doing about 50mph. I slammed in to a small tree and then landed on a barbed fence. I don't know how, but I came out unharmed.

But just a few months ago I wrecked my F150 and my arm was slung out the window and a tree tore half of it off. The bone was popped out but I still managed to dry my self home and then to the hospital. I went through two surgeries, one putting the bone back in place, and then one where the doctors took skin from my leg and put it over my arm.

I know what you are going through, it will get better.

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2006 Honda 400EX
1998 Yamaha Timberwolf

good luck and god grant a speedy recovery.

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06 Wolverine
EPI clutch kit
GYTR Skid Plates and rad guard
front bumper-truckbed coated black- looks great
K&N air filter
DYNOJET jet kit
GYTR pipe
CMP front and rear racks
Reverse Rev limiter override kit
Automatic backup light kit
FST 488 bbk and cam
Ported and polished head
powermadd handguards

2001 Raptor 660
Inframe monster duals, K&N
12 tooth front sprocket

Your wife, you and the family are in
our prayers! And thanks for caring
to share your personal family story
so we MAY all learn from this and
REMEMBER our saftey as number
one IMPORTANCE!

Thanks again and wish your
wife the fastest and painless
recovery!

R'

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Quads: 08'800 Sport Stealth (Blk) - MINE | 06'450 Sport (Ylw) - WIFE

Add-ons: Warn2.5ci Winch/Brush Guard&R.Bmper/F&R BG Rack Ext.
H.Guards/M-Dog Grips/K&N Air Filter/3-H.light MOD/R.Wrk.Lights

PICS|VIDEO

"single unmarked strand of barbed wire strung across the trail"

Is this simply fenced off to keep livestock or? OR????

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"I pity da foo!"

Bikes 04' 300EX<BR>05' Kodiak 450 S.E. <BR>06' Desert Cat 90

wishing your wife a speedy recovery.........now you said your wife has been thrown from horses, seems like she's a tough lady.i just hope that she treats this like any other horse.give her time friend,i'm sure she'll climb back on this horse.

Best wishes to you, an in-law of mine was killed by a INTENTIONALLY strung cable across a trail. Its part of the reason i always go on point. Your in my prayers tonight.

I'm glad that she is going to be ok. She is very fortunate to still be here with us. Things like this happen for those of us who travel paths that others don't. Be careful, keep safe, and be there for your wife. 1*

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2007 X2 500 EFI Camo!!!
Camo Rims
26" PXT's
Body Guard Fender Protectors
Front Tube Bumper
Polaris Winch
Black Handguards

Looking for fence posts alone isn't enough. Around here lots of barbed wire fences are strung by notching trees and just running the wire through the notch. There is NOTHING but the barbed wire itself.

This particular kind of accident is one of my worst nightmares. So far we've always ridden slowly through areas at first, then we go back and speed around if we want to. Riding with my son, whose machine is limited to ~13 MPH, keeps us going slowly too. But I wouldn't want to get involved with barbed wire at ANY speed.

Keep your eyes open for anything and everything. Stuff happens fast when you're moving several feet every second.

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2006 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI (hers)
2004 Polaris Sportsman 700 (mine)
2002 Suzuki Quadmaster 50 (son's)

I don't want to sound harsh or insensative , but where was the trail ? on private property? area that has had problems with atvs? or public riding area? or public area that the trail crossed onto private ground.

The environ"mental" folks sometimes string things across perfectly legal trails. These types oppose motorized vehicles regardless of where they are riding.

Don't take anything for granted. Just because the trail was safe yesterday doesn't mean it's safe today. Check first, then open 'er up.

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2006 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI (hers)
2004 Polaris Sportsman 700 (mine)
2002 Suzuki Quadmaster 50 (son's)

This is not directed at XavierOnasis, but just an example "to raise awareness" while out enjoying the sport we all love so much.

Last weekend, I took my younger sibling out for a target practice lesson. We were just plunking at a target when I heard a quad coming. We quickly set the gun down and a man rode across about 15 feet behind our target.

Lucky for him, It was only a pellet gun.... Had it been a more dangerous gun, he may have heard it.....I don't know

Our property is posted no trespassing now just for these reasons...I don't mind 4 wheelers crossing the property, but you gotta cover your ass cause people don't always think about the dangers of riding on someone else's land

Take care and ride safe.....wish you the best XavierOnasis

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"I pity da foo!"

Bikes 04' 300EX<BR>05' Kodiak 450 S.E. <BR>06' Desert Cat 90

Hate to break it to ya but that won't discourage most of them. The sad thing is (and to detriment of our sport) is that a large percentage of riders will not only blast right by that no trespassing sign but with rip it down. You see, what is yours is theirs. The only thing that matters is that you provide them a place to ride their ATV. And heaven help you if one of them gets hurt while they're trespassing, burglarizing, stealing and vandalizing on your land. They'll start placing calls to Larry H. Lawyer before the blood is dry and the ambulance has stopped rolling.

And that's why you have to write those large checks every 6 months for multimillion dollar liability coverage.

Yep. I've been criticized many times on this forum for going to great lengths to keep ATV, dirt bike and other trespassers off my property and impose serious fines for their destruction of public property or close it off for that very reason. And I still read posts by riders encouraging trespassing because public money hasn't provided a place for them to destroy.

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05 KQ

It's that entitlement mentality that gets more restrictive legislation passed, gets more landowners and members of the general public to side against the sport. It just takes a small group of irresponsible riders to cause irreparable damage to the sport and eventually industry.

Many times you have parents buying ATVs for spoiled children and the kids have nowhere to ride and no supervision and they are just turned loose with them. other times you have adults who might as well be adolescents as they lack any sort of adult judgment or restraints on their behavior.

The best a landowner can do is to post and protect his property with every resource the law allows, including the filing of trespassing charges and getting those trespassing served with whatever restraining orders or injunctions are applicable in your state which provide even more legal repercussions if they're caught again. Once fines are imposed and legal papers get served the message gets across. It's worth it to hire an attorney to do it for you or if you're ambitious you can do it yourself.

We've got to clean up our sport and our image or we're not going to have anywhere left to ride and we'll only have ourselves to blame.

I agree that the trespassing is a huge issue and should not happen. This is wrong and does give ammo to those who want to close down everything. Providing "real" trails will help alleviate this but will most likely never get rid of it entirely just due to the difference in human nature. What I mean by "real" trails are not the gravel roads that seem to be put in as ATV trails but trails that are only wide enough for 1 quad in spots, more so than not, has mud/rocks/trees and other complications in the way and allow for the use of the 4wd atv's qualities. I don't get my ATV out much anymore except in the winter to pull an ice house around simply due to the lack of trail systems with some diversity other than dirt/gravel/sand roadways.

I got out of my local ATV club a couple years ago due to personal issues but am going to be getting back in with them as I see our sport degrading to the point of not having anywhere to ride and if we do have somewhere to ride it will be in and offroad park only or on gravel roads so called "trails".

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2003 Prairie 650 V-Twin 26" Bearclaws Black Spring 2" High Lifter Kit

XavierOnasis - so how are things going?? hope that she is healing well and quickly - have a good group of people behind ya and pulling for a complete recovery. sounds like her guardian angel was riding with you two that day and glad they where. let us know how things are going and tell the little lady that we are all pulling for her!! some seriously scary ____!!!!!!

Splat

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2000 Honda XR250R<BR>2001 Yamaha TTR125L<BR>1985 Honda ATC350X<BR>2000 Honda Quadracut self propelled mower - wanna race?? lol

Thanks, Splat, and all.

The first week was marked with recvery faster than could be hoped. She was up and around pretty quickly, taking care of her self and only troubled with pain from the sternum fracture. Then, things kinda stood still for a while and now in the last couple of days suddenly she's making big progress again. She can now wear a bra all day and drive herself about wearing a seatbelt without undue pain and she plans on returning to work next week.

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I may have a short attention span but
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If the offroad community had quit relying on "public money" to solve their problems instead of proactively using their own in a true pay-to-play manner...we wouldn't today be experiencing these massive land closures or this underfunded lack of effective enforcement that you speak of.(which could have have funded itself through simply stiff fines and impoundments).

As for being criticized many times for having the guts to simply come out and say that you've had enough and are willing to do something about it...welcome to the club and don't ever hold back.

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Forming a "Long Range Financial Subcommittee" in MI.:
Take two inexplicably expired term motorcycle reps. still serving on the board (one names yet another motorcycle rep)
Add 1 full-size and but 1 atv rep.
Arrogantly claim that the entire process should be finished in 4 conference calls with absolutely no public involvement or any meeting minutes recorded.
Result?
No complaint whatsoever from sheep-like atv clubs with literally tens of millions in play.

I agree with half of what you are saying.

The "publics money" is really money pulled from the sale of a quad purchase and/or registration. That money is earmarked for trails, but is seldom used for them.

People have a right to be pissed. I'm sure most people would pay yearly fees on top of what they already pay to open up public trails for atv use.

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"I pity da foo!"

Bikes 04' 300EX<BR>05' Kodiak 450 S.E. <BR>06' Desert Cat 90