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West Virginia's all-terrain-vehicle death toll is at least 16-18 in 2006 after two more fatal wrecks last week.
Medical and transportation officials who track ATV deaths and injuries have also discovered three deaths from earlier this year in Putnam, Grant and Nicholas counties.
John Roush, 24, of Point Pleasant was riding his ATV on Gunville Road in the Leon area with his brother Donnie Roush, 42, according to a Mason County Sheriff's Department dispatcher. The brothers' ATVs struck each other around 6:15 p.m.
Roush was a Flatrock volunteer firefighter, who went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead later in the night at Jackson General Hospital.
It was unclear whether they were wearing helmets.
That same night, Carl James Childers, 66, of Gauley Bridge lost control of his ATV on Scrabble Creek Road, apparently over-correcting, and flipping his vehicle.
He died the next day in a Charleston hospital.
Mark Holmes, program manager at the Governor's Highway Safety Program, said he and other people who track ATV deaths in West Virginia recently uncovered information about three earlier ATV deaths this year:
- Michael McGee, 25, of Poca wrecked his ATV on Jan. 28 while riding with three other riders. He died in a hospital on Feb. 6. The Putnam County Sheriff's Department report noted that McGee's ATV and other evidence was gone by the time a deputy arrived on scene, Holmes said.
- Lester Rohrbaugh, 88, of Petersburg died on Feb. 16 after his ATV rolled on him while he was logging in Grant County.
- Ryan Arthur, 20, of Belva died on March 31 after his ATV hit a tree laying in the road around 3:15 a.m.
WV emergency rooms have reported several hundred injuries so far this year.
Holmes said it appears that the state will once again lead the nation in ATV deaths.
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