Sports Page

   As the Crowsnest Pass Quad Squad held an open house for their new office building, representatives from the Alberta Off-Highway Vehicle Association (AOHVA) were on hand to promote an expanding safety program that was born in the Crowsnest Pass and is now in schools across southern Alberta.

   Calvin Rakach, Past President and Technical Director of the AOHVA, and Don Peters, ATV Safety Instructor and Education Coordinator with the AOHVA and the Quad Squad, were at the open house with their Honda safety trailer. The trailer, one of three in Canada, is displayed at trade shows and dealerships, and can be used to display proper riding techniques.

   The safety program has been in elementary schools across southern Alberta for five years now. “We promote safety on the machine,” says Peters. He says that one half of the program is talking about proper riding skills and riding equipment.

   “The other half that’s really important is care of the land,” he says. Peters talks with youth about why they should stay on trails, use bridges instead of crossing streams, stay out of wetland areas, and bring their garbage back out with them. Peters says that he also encourages parental supervision, as not enough users know that youth under the age of 14 are required by law to have supervision when riding.

   There is a lot of interest provincially in the s a f e t y program, s a y s Rakach. “ We’re expanding the program across Alberta,” he says. “There are definitely areas of Alberta where there are huge gaps. The need is recognized.” “It was an idea that was born here in the Crowsnest Pass,” adds Peters. He says that Glen French and Dennis  Beasley (Quad Squad Vice President) had been kicking the idea around for some time when he met them, and soon they recruited him to run the safety program. The program is funded by the AOHVA and Alberta Tourism, Parks, Recreation and Culture, and the Quad Squad runs it on behalf of the AOHVA.

   Peters says that ATV and snowmobile safety is already a part of the school curriculum, under the health section, and so schools are always eager to have him in to run his 45-minute presentations and discussions. “The need is out there,” says Rakach. “The desire is out there. From schools, from parents.” In the last five years, he says, nearly 7000 students have gone through the safety program.