Gov. Haley Signs Children's ATV Safety Bill, "Chandler's Law"

On May 10th, 2003, 16-year-old Chandler Saylor died in an ATV accident. His parents, Pam and Steve Saylor, have been pushing for an ATV safety law for children ever since.

Eight years and one day after his death, Gov. Nikki Haley signed "Chandler's Law", which requires that children under 16 take an ATV training course and wear helmets and eye protection while riding.

"It's an exciting day," Pam Saylor said after the private bill-signing ceremony in the governor's office. "It's full of mixed emotions, but we do feel like it's going to make a difference in the lives of children."

They had come close before, with the legislature passing Chandler's Law twice before, only to have then-governor Mark Sanford veto it. He was concerned that it infringed on parental responsibility and private property rights.

The bill that finally became law addresses those concerns. The law will not apply to children under the direct visual supervision of a parent or legal guardian if they're on private property.

The Saylors don't think that weakens the bill by giving parents a big loophole. "They're going to realize that they need to go ahead and do the training anyway, just in the event the child's ever riding it without the parent or legal guardian there. So I don't really think that takes anything away from it," Pam says.

Steve Saylor adds, "If your child is riding around and around the house and you're in the back yard, you're not in direct visual contact, so you're in violation."

The Penalty for violating the new law is a fine of between $50 and $200.

ATV dealers say there will now be thousands of South Carolina parents trying to get their children into training classes before the law takes effect July 1st, but there won't be enough classes available.

Pam Saylor says, "That's our next step in this process, is to make sure that we make that available for kids and so that's what we're going to work very closely with the governor's office on, making sure that that happens for these children in our state."

According to the ATV Safety Institute, there are currently nine registered ASI training sites in South Carolina.  These sites are located in the following towns:

Aiken

Chester

Chesnee

Liberty

Little River

Marietta

Mountville

St. George

Winnsboro

The ASI says in a written statement, "Many of our Instructors travel to remote, temporary sites to deliver the ATV RiderCourse whenever there are people who want ATV training but can’t make it to one of our registered training sites. 

"At the time of this writing, there are six ATV RiderCourses available for enrollment in South Carolina, and more are in the process of being scheduled.  As mentioned above, we closely monitor the demand for ATV training and we schedule ATV classes whenever and wherever there is a need.  ASI’s network of licensed instructors, training sites and available classes is designed to handle rapid changes in training demand regardless of the reason.

"Training is free for anyone who purchases a new ATV from an ASI member company.  For anyone who doesn’t qualify for free training, training is available for a reasonable fee.  The tuition cost is $55 for ages 6 – 15, and $150 for ages 16 and above. Most ASI member companies offer an incentive to any of their ATV buyers who complete the ATV RiderCourse. Most incentives are valued at $100 and take the form of either cash, merchandise-certificates or a combination of both.

The original bill would have made it illegal for children under the age of 9 to drive an ATV, but the House changed that to make it illegal for children under the age of 6. That's because there are smaller ATVs made for children 6 and older and House members worried that, if they didn't lower the age, parents would still buy the smaller ATVs and those children would not be covered by the law.

Pam Saylor says she can't put into words how she feels knowing that Chandler's name will be forever attached to a law aimed at protecting children, but she says the eight years of attention their fight for this law has brought to the problem has probably already saved lives, and that will be Chandler's legacy.