Originally Posted by kswild (Post 3699530)

Wear a helmet when riding a 4 wheeler or side by side? Going to your stand or just in your everyday activities that involve using a atv.
Live it up! Doug

Originally Posted by mohunter09 (Post 3699556)

Been riding four wheelers/3-wheeler(big red)/Dirtbikes since I was really young always...and never wore a helmet until may of 2009. I have always thought I couldnt possibly get in a wreck for some reason even when I did some really stupid, ignorant stunts and went up hills you should never attempt, went in areas where a fourwheeler wasnt mean to be. Well, 3 days after my high school graduation myself, my best friend, and his entire family were creek riding in the bottom lands where we do every year, we had made it about 4 miles down the creek through water over the four wheelers and mud that was over the tires in certain points, haivng several drowned out incidents, had to fish a four wheeler or two out of random holes in the creek, and finally once we got back to where we enter the creek bed we were trying to get up a very very steep and slippery sandy hill, after about 8 attempts doing it the right way I got lazy and sat down on the seat and in a split second I caught a rut on my 28 inch kenda executioners and the four wheeler raised up 10 feet in the year and landed handle bars first into my face..aobut 800 lbs straight to my eye brow. I bent the handle bars back into the frame with my head, and split my face open considerably good. I couldn't feel it but I was in shock and my friend and his uncle threw the four wheeler off and they had owl eyes at the damage that I couldnt even feel. I looked in the relfection in the water and realized my entire face was covered in blood and my skin was dangling over my eye and my bone was visible...so I attempted to remain calm as I start cussing..and they ran me as fast as possible to a vehicle to rush me to the hospital..and hospitals dont take to kindly to a pissed off guy with his head split open that is covered in mud and soaking wet head to toe dirtying up the hospital with every step I took..It was a bad experience, had to lay with my head rested 3 days after graduation for a week with stitches in lots of pain while all my other classmates partied away. Learn from my stupidity..and wear a helmet. Double layer stitches are not fun.

Originally Posted by Jeff Ovington (Post 3699559)

I started to wear one. A bunch of us guys from work were quading and one guy rolled his quad down a ravine. He ended breaking his leg
and wrist, he was concious but going into shock.and his quad was totalled.I am a level 3 first sid attendent so after assessing him and the rule out of no neck or spine injury that I could tell without ex rays ,we made the decision and tied a winch around my waist and I while I physically picked him up ,to the best of my ability and hurting him alot, I walked up the ravine with the help of the winch.We were 6 hours away from town on extremely rough roads was slow ride back cause every bump.He needed immediate medical attention cause it was a rollover but we had no way to medivac him out. He was wearing a helmet is injuries would have been much more severe looking back on it if he didn't have one on.He went over the bank that had nothing but rocks and pine trees and dead fall.Yeah I could see his head being crushed by a rock or a branch spearing him through his head.That's when I bought for personal use,spineboard,hard collar ,helmet, satelite phone.Unfortunately it took this incident for me to do it ,but I don't leave the highway,without emergency radio contact,helmet , or serious first aid equipment . The helmet is like the lifejacket to me now.I even wear the lifejacket when shore fishing on the Rivers now.This couldhave been fatal thankfully he didn't die.I don't believe god was watching over him he just did the right thing and wore a helmet.