The death of a 10-year-old boy last week after being pinned under his all terrain vehicle, or ATV, is a tragedy. Our hearts go out to his family.

The details of his death are still emerging. Whatever they tell us will not change the salient fact about this incident: We do not believe children under the age of 16 have the maturity, judgment or skills to safely operate an ATV.

The Consumer Federation of America, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the American College of Emergency Physicians and a host of other safety and consumer groups have long campaigned for strong restrictions on the use of ATVs by children. Several have called upon regulators to bar children under 16 from using ATVs altogether. Yet these meaningful restrictions have been resisted by ATV manufacturers and a weak federal Consumer Products Safety Commission, the latter of which has been satisfied to merely ask for voluntary safety measures by manufacturers. They have, similarly, been resisted by most states, including Maine.

This laissez-faire approach has been the norm despite these alarming statistics:

n Children under 16 constitute 14 percent of ATV riders, but suffered 37 percent of all injuries and 38 percent of total fatalities between 1985 and 2001.

n According to the Consumer Federation of America, despite industry-sponsored safety campaigns, the risk of injury to four-wheel ATV riders today is nearly as high as it was in the 1980s.

n More than 95 percent of children under age 16 who are injured in ATV-related accidents have been riding adult-sized machines.

n Unstable three-wheel ATVs were often blamed as the root of the safety problem with the vehicles. But the industry has shifted over to production of 4-wheelers, and the injuries and deaths continue to rise.

n More than 111,000 Americans are injured, maimed or killed in ATV accidents each year. One third of them are children.

ATVs are big, heavy, unwieldy machines that take skill and judgment to operate. They can go as fast as cars, are arguably more dangerous than cars -- yet we require a license for operating a car at age 16, while we allow children under 16 to operate ATVs with few restrictions.

Restricting freedom is not something to be done lightly, even if it's restricting one's freedom to do reckless things. But restricting the right of children under the age of 16 to use ATVs does not strike us as an assault upon any of the freedoms that we hold dear as Americans, or even Mainers. What freedom is lost is more than made up for in the increased safety of our children.

We join with the nation's pediatricians, orthopedic surgeons, consumer advocates and medical researchers in urging both the state Legislature and the federal goverment to end what is legitimately being called an "ATV safety crisis." Children under 16 should not be allowed to operate ATVs.