Son lost on ATV compels mother to speak

Courtsey of Sun Herald/July 5, 2007
A nervous but determined Kim Motes stood beside a wrecked Honda Recon ATV in a Lucedale parking lot and began talking about the accident.
In the background the rain was stopping and people were climbing out of cars to celebrate the Fourth of July. Motes was not celebrating.
She is just now coming to terms with the loss of her child, and she is determined to do something about it.
Her life was turned upside down in February. Her son, Benjamin "Jamie" Dunn, was killed while driving his ATV to a friend's house. He pulled out behind a dump truck at the intersection of Mississippi 613 and Ward Pineview Road, according to witnesses, and was struck by a car he did not see. He died the next day.
He was 16 years old.
"I'll never forget that day. My son just laid there in ICU with all of those machines beeping. He wasn't responsive, but I just prayed for a miracle. At 10:40 in the morning, they pronounced my baby dead," Motes said. "And to make it worse, it was my birthday."
Mote says her son did everything he wasn't supposed to do. Not only had he been driving along a road, he also wasn't wearing a helmet.
"I know ATVs are so popular and kids use them like automobiles around here," she said, "but they're not. They're not meant for the road. And a helmet should always be worn."
She said she understands other parents who don't enforce those rules. She didn't follow them, either. "But it's no excuse now. It's like seat belts. We know better."
Not only are parents not enforcing good safety rules when it comes to children riding ATVs, the state has few rules for them.
George County Sheriff Garry Welford said during an earlier interview there are few laws concerning operating ATVs and similar unregistered vehicles on Mississippi highways.
"I have researched the law thoroughly. The only thing we are able to do is ticket the drivers for improper equipment or because they cannot provide proof of liability insurance."
In the absence of state law, Welford asked George County supervisors on March 5 to adopt a county ordinance regarding ATVs on county highways. The supervisors chose to take no action with board attorney Robert Shepard telling Welford the board could only do so much to protect people from themselves.
Dunn's death was the second ATV-related death on George County highways this year. Jillian Howell, 23, was killed Jan. 26 when she was thrown from an ATV into the path of a car. Howell was a passenger on a machine being driven on the shoulder of Mississippi 198 west of Lucedale when the accident occurred.
Nationwide, 40,000 children under the age 16 are killed or injured in ATV accidents each year, according to Concerned Families for ATV Safety. It is a number that is increasing. During the decade from 1995 until 2005, ATV-related deaths for children increased 88 percent.
Dr. Bill Beazley, George Regional Emergency Room medical director, said ATV accidents are not rare. "Accidents are happening all the time," he said in a recent news release on the topic. "What just tears me up is knowing that these accidents are all preventable."