boy killed in head on atv collision

[SIXSIXZERO]

DESLOGE, Mo. (Map, News) - Authorities continue to investigate a fatal off-road accident involving a motorcycle and an ATV driven by a 12-year-old.
The accident happened Sunday at St. Joe State Park in St. Francois County, killing 19-year-old Stephen Buckman of Desloge.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol says Buckman's motorcycle was struck head-on by an all-terrain vehicle driven by the child. Buckman was thrown from the motorcycle and pronounced dead at the scene. The boy on the ATV was not injured.
No charges have been filed.
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this is crazy. jeff actually was hit by a young kid on a quad that day also. luckily jeff was on point enough to react fast enough. they did collide, but only the quad crashed, jeff did not. thank god, if he hadnt reacted, id be mourning his death probobly. the whole thing happened right in front of me and was like slow motion. i made sure the kid was ok, then proceeded to tell him how lucky he was he didnt just kill 2 people, one being himself. needless to say, i dont think the kid got back on his bike for the rest of the day. we left right around 3pm, so we may have gotten lucky that this was not one of us. my prayers go out to his family. this just goes to show how much you MUST pay attention when riding in these crowded areas. also, i think they need to make the main trail system a one way deal, that would help alot. id say a high percentage of the people that ride there have little or no experience in this type of environment, and dont realize the dangers they are not only putting themselves in, but their children as well. i can almost guarantee you that the 12 year old was riding a bike that was much to big for him (law states you must be 16 to operate anything over 90cc) and could not control or react fast enough. i see it every time i go, parents putting kids on machines way to big for them, then just letting them go out for a ride, with no supervision, or with proper supervision ( your 10 year old is not proper supervision for your 8 year old!!!) im really sorry this happened, but sadly it takes events like this to make people realize the dangers of this sport and the importance of gear. ( a helmet is not enough gear to help in this type of offroad riding). also, the flag rules are shady. they are stated in the rules but not highly enforced. bikes are not required to use flags, quads are, but a broken flag duct taped to your grab bar thats only 2 ft tall doesnt really count in my eyes. this is sad, and will proboly deter us from riding there much more than humanly possible. sucks that this is the only way people

 

[Bodge]

I agree that the trails should be one way, i remember crashing into a quad when i was 15 but walking away. That was the last time i raced through the pit(working gravel pit that is, nothing is marked).

 

[YamaB]

RIP.

Open riding areas like this always make me VERY nervous. I wish more places would mark out a course and direction for trails. Also, imho, a 12 year old has no business riding an atv w/out parental supervision at all times.

 

[O3RM125]

Went out for my first "full day" of riding last weekend in over 16 years. My 11 year old was on his drz 110 and me on my rm 125. In the first 5 min as I rode away from the truck I came across two kids, maybe 8-10 years old on small quads, the first one cut me off the trail coming within about 3 feet of hitting me where the trail intersected with another trail and I rode off the trail to avoid him/her, the second kid tried to avoid their friend who had stopped and ended up stopping in the middle of the trail where I was looking to re-enter at forcing me to stop and wave them on. This was about 200 yards from the truck. No trails are marked in anyway here, when I was away from the "camping" area my Wife supervised our sons riding.

It was my sons first day riding ever and as the day wore on and more people showed up to the riding area it became more and more dangerous. My son was riding near the truck as it was the only flat land in the immediate area and after watching him weave in and out(and other riders doing the same) of "traffic" I decided it was time to pack up and go home.

It was not only overly busy around the area where we were camped but on the two nearby "mx tracks" people were going the wrong way on the track, jumping off the backside of the berms while riders were using the track, basically just being reckless. One time I came upon a rider going the opposite way on the track, so I turned around and started to follow him only to find more riders going the "wrong way", I gave up on riding the tracks at that point, sat on a nearby hill and watched the madness before going back to the truck to pack up.

It sure made me miss the wide open spaces of Ocotillo Well's 80,000+ acres where I grew up riding. Very sorry to hear of this family's loss, and frankly after returning to the off-road riding scene in December after so long Ive heard too many stories similar to this in such a short time.

 

[Patman]

We don't ride anyplace that isn't directional AND enforced that way. It's just not worth the risk.

Unfortunate situation for sure :(

 

[Offroadr]

Flat River has always had this issue. I was on pins and needles trying to ride there. There are blind corners all over the place in the woods. Its dominated by ATVs and they come around the corner and you have no place to go.


You cannot ride aggressive there, with that being said I lost interest in the place and don't go there.

Unfortunatly there was probably nothing either rider could do. The trails are worn so bad there are banks on each side. You can't get off the trail, no where to go.

 

[RM85rider123]

at slades park, VA they have the one way thing. it really helps out

 

[2-Strokes 4-ever]

We're only about 1&1/2 hours from St Joe Park. The place is complete crazyness. With the sand flats right outside the staging/pit area, you have to cross through the drag-racing quads to get to the trails.....if this is where the head-on was, it's totally understandable. St Joe was originally meant to be 3,500+ acres of riding but they've squeezed it down to about 1,500 for the public........ too may people on too little land. I've seen the ambulance helicopters there more than once. Although good riding when all the park is open for an Enduro or Hare Scramble, if you MUST ride there on a weekend, get there early and be gone by noon!

 

[kx125412]

Well where we ride you dont often see any quads until you get onto a wide trail or the road when we're cutting across back into the tighter stuff where they can't access. But they like to travel down the centre of the trail and just go as fast as possible. All of us have had near crash incidents. Then you're the one that gets the dirty look.

 

[funktree]

We had a similar thing happen here a couple years ago, the girl who died was in my wife's 8th grade English class. She was on a quad and ran into a bike, they said no one was really at fault. There are a ton of small blind hills where it happened, directional trails would have helped I'm sure, but it don't matter because the BLM shut that place down after that. The place was crazy though, we used to have to have someone sit out as a designated spotter when we wanted to race each other or jump something.

 

[TJSCOTT1977xr75]

i thank God everyday that i live in the country and have hundreds of acres to ride all to myself because no one in the whole town rides dirt bikes.

 

[2-Strokes 4-ever]

i thank God everyday that i live in the country and have hundreds of acres to ride all to myself because no one in the whole town rides dirt bikes.

ROADTRIP!!!... but, how do I find the town "face" on Mapquest?

 

[TJSCOTT1977xr75]

haha, i live in Hurley, Mo. population 150. (seriously).

 

[atkkid250]

haha, same with me here in a little town in maine, the population is a bit bigger, but its a large town and noone rides, its great.

 

[morningoak]

So very unfortunate...

I was there that day. A bunch of us from Illinois were there all weekend. Saturday was a blast, but Sunday was chaos! There had to have been 300+ quads there, drag racing back and forth constantly (even groups racing towards each other) with other quads doing doughnuts and wheelies in the path of the racing, bikes and even little kids crossing the path of quads to get to the real riding area. It was such a mess that I didn't even ride. I can't believe people don't get killed there on a regular basis.

 

[TJSCOTT1977xr75]

i know im 13, so i really dont have much room to talk, but some kids just try to impress people by the way they ride, they just end up looking like dumb kids when they do it. they dont realize that quads and bikes are serious machines and you can easily get killed on them. me, leave me alone and ill ride the same as in front of people. im not trying to impress anybody, i just wanna have fun, and these kids are making it real hard.

 

[YamaB]

I'm fortunate that I belong to a private members only riding area that has a 2 mile mx track and a 7-8 mile 1 direction/marked woods loop. No quads, and most of the members are more of the hardcore woods racer and/or mx racer types. You can ride a full out race pace w/out worrying about some bozo on a quad taking you out. I rarely ride "public" riding areas unless they are closed off for a race.

 

[agitt73]

evan when marked there is almost always some 1 going wrong way at 1 point in time or another