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Ogden • The death of a 9-year-old Tremonton boy in an ATV accident on Thursday hit close to home for Janet Brooks and Chris Haller.

"My heart goes out to the family," said Haller, off-highway vehicle program manager for the Utah Department of Natural Resources. "I take that on personally. Have we done all we can?"

The boy, whose name has not been released by the Box Elder County sheriff, was not wearing a helmet.

"When something like this happens, a little bit of us dies with that child," said Brooks, child advocacy manager at Primary Children's Hospital. "But we have an opportunity to reach out to more families so that this won't happen again."

Haller and Brooks were at the Weber County Fairgrounds on Saturday for a youth ATV certification course, sponsored by their two organizations and the Weber-Morgan Health Department.

"We know that these kids are out on our public lands," Haller said. "What we want to do is give them a skill set so that they become comfortable operating the ATVs."

Utah's statistics when it comes to kids and ATV riding are distressing.

"We're the fourth-highest admitting hospital in the country for children with traumatic brain injuries," Brooks said. "And 12 percent of those are related to ATVs."

Only 58 percent of Utahns say they wear helmets while riding ATVs. Of the pediatric ATV traumas seen at Primary Children's in the past three years, less than half of the children were wearing helmets — although state law requires those 17 and younger to wear them.

And ATV safety has been lacking, according to Brooks.

"We talk about kids in car seats and drowning prevention, but nothing had really been done here," she said, adding that Primary Children's research indicates Utah children are 1,000 times more likely to be injured in an ATV accident than a car accident.

Utah requires children ages 8-16 to take an ATV certification course, but only 38 percent of children whose parents own one do so.

"We believe there's a large percentage of the public that's operating ATVs that don't know there's an education course available," Haller said.

Children can be certified online at offroad-ed.com/utah/ — which proclaims "Take this Utah state–approved online course, print your certificate, and be on the trail in just a few hours." But Haller and Brooks both said there's an advantage to hands-on training.

And Gary Burnham of North Ogden agrees. He was there Saturday with his grandson, Shaun Sorensen, 8 — the 10th grandchild he has taken to the training class.

"It teaches them responsibility," he said. "They're better on the ATVs. Their risk assessment is better. It's just a good, overall system."

The five youngsters, who range in age from 8-15, at the Weber County Fairgrounds on Saturday learned about everything from the proper equipment to vehicle maintenance, from four different riding positions to how to interact with other ATV riders.

"They're going to learn 16 different building blocks that, at the end of the day, will allow them to ride safely," Haller said. "These are not babysitters. These are machines."

"These kids will come out of here with a much better feel for riding, understanding the dangers and the risks," Brooks said. "And what they can do to prevent mishaps."

For more information on ATV safety courses, go to PrimaryChildrens.org/Safety.

Twitter @ScottDPierce