The Nation

Injuries to children from accidents involving all-terrain and other recreational vehicles are increasing at "an alarming rate," a Canadian surgeon and researcher reported. Eight hospitals in the Canadian province of Manitoba reported 375 hospitalizations of patients under 17 from accidents on ATVs, off-road and miniature motorcycles and snowmobiles between April, 1979, and August, 1986, said Dr. J. Alexander Pyper, of the University of Manitoba's Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg. Twenty-one of the children died. The study will be presented this week at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons meeting in Atlanta.