Murphy Nichols

My name is Cynde Nichols. I live in Caldwell, Idaho. I have 3 boys and 3 girls. My family and I were avid atv riders. We own 5 atvs. A suzuki 80, a 250 trail boss, a 400 scrambler, a 425 magnum and a 700 sportsman. My husband and I have rode atvs for 11 years. My husband and Murphy were up camping and we were going to meet them in 2 days. They were riding the 700 sportsman just down the road from camp to see if they could see fish in the river. Murphy was riding in front on the 700 sportsman with his dad driving. They slid on some loose gravel and the 4 wheeler flipped. Throwing my husband and Murphy off. The 4 wheeler landed on Murphy and he died of Blunt force head trauma. The machine weighed 700 pounds, Murphy weighed 37 pounds. That day we lost our son and our lives. We really enjoyed riding atvs and went as a family to the hills all the time. We had no idea how easy these atvs roll over. We have not rode since the accident. They sit in our garage and remind us every day that Murphy died while we were supposed to be having fun together as a family. We have learned the hard way that adult size atvs are not safe for any of our children. Murphy was three years and 5 months old. The poster boy for snakes and snails and puppy dog tails. He loved the outdoors and loved to ride on these machines and that is what they are machines not toys for our children to play with. Murphy knew how to start the atvs and he thought he knew how to steer them too. We made a very bad, uninformed and uneducated decision to let our children ride. We always supervised our children and never left them alone. Our dealers never once instructed us about the dangers of letting children ride and operate these atvs. In fact the dealer help us fit three of our children who were under the age of 7 with child size helmets knowing full well they were going to ride on the 700 sportsman that we were purchasing at that moment.

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