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election sites, but said
Johnson was welcome to

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visit him in DC. Turning to
the outdoors with summer at

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its peak, ATV and side by
side vehicles are out in

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force across thousands of
miles of trails in

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Wisconsin, and we have the
most registered off road

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vehicles of any state at
more than half a million.

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The explosion in rioters
comes with a steady

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increase, though, in
fatality and injury

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accidents involving the
vehicles. A new law went

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into effect in June that
requires seatbelt use, part

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of work to enhance the
safety of ATVs and utvs.

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DNR conservation Warden
Jake Holsclaw oversees the

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Off Highway vehicle program
and joins us now from Eau

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Claire. And thanks very
much for being here.

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>> Absolutely look forward
to it.

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>> So how busy is it out
there on the ATV routes?

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>> Yeah. Great question. It
seems like it's getting

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busier every day. Wisconsin,
like you said, we have over

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half a million registered
machines. It seems like

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that number is going up
every year. And we have

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about 2500 miles of off
road trail routes. And then

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we have over 65,000 miles
of on road routes. So

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basically roadways, you
know, roadway routes shared

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with other motor vehicles.
So it really does keep us

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busy.
>> As we've said, the

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uptick in the number of
riders, though, also

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results in an increase in
accidents and injuries and

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even fatalities.
>> Yeah, unfortunately, I

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think that that's just a
kind of a byproduct of the

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increased numbers. We
really started to see an

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increase around 2020, 2021.
I think people were just

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with everything else going
on, they were trying to get

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outdoors, find something to
do. And it really has

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stayed steadily increasing
ever since then. And when

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you have more people on the
landscape, you have more

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folks potentially are, you
know, not being safe and

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not following the rules.
And then we have seen an

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uptick in crashes because
of that.

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crashes mostly happen?
>> Well, it's any number of

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reasons. A number of our
crashes are going to be

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alcohol or drug related.
The majority of them would

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be alcohol related. When
we're looking at, you know,

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some kind of substance, so
to speak, that's causing

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folks to crash. And so I
think folks need to

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remember that, you know,
just like the motor vehicle

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world, you really need to
make a smart decision and

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realize that even with
these recreational vehicles

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like ATVs and Utvs, maybe
even more so, they're very

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dynamic machine and folks
have to be you want to be

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on your best, right? You
want your mind to be

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working the best. You want
your body, your reaction

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time to be working the best
when you're out operating

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these. One of the other
things is that people need

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to remember. I think they
sometimes forget that these

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machines handle differently
roadways. The original

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design of these machines,
in fact, that's what the

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you know, you'll see
manufacturers

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recommendations is that
they are only operated off

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the road. So I think folks
need to remember that the

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knobby or softer tires on a
lot of these machines, they

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tend to grip pavement
really well. And if people

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drive them like they would
drive their car going to

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work, it can cause some
problems. They tend to tip

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easier if people aren't
slowing down into their

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curves and really
anticipating their stops.

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So a number of the crashes
we're seeing, a little over

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half are occurring on
roadway routes.

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>> So as to the operation
of these vehicles while

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under the influence of
whatever it is. What are

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the penalties for that? I
mean, you can write

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citations for that, but
what are the penalties that

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someone would face for that?
>> Yeah, ultimately it

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would be it would be a
citation or a couple

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citations. Typically, you
know, the citation is

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issued for the operating
while intoxicated. If

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they're operating over that
0.08 level, they would be

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issued an additional
citation for that. And then

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sometimes they're issued to
other citations for other

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violations that may have
occurred because they were

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intoxicated and not not
really thinking clearly and

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and violating some other
safety issues. So yeah, so

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a number of citations can
be issued. But typically,

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you know, most of what
we're running into is a

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first offense. And in
Wisconsin, like any, oh, to

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be a first offense is just
a civil forfeiture. It's

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really just a fine. There's
typically typically no jail

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time or extra fines
associated with that unless

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unless there is something
more major, like somebody

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dies in the crash or
something like that happens.

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>> And so people could be
right back out there on, on

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those vehicles after that
kind of a citation. Now, I

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took a look at your annual
report, and it says that

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95% of fatal accidents are
among operators who have

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not taken a safety course,
but those are that course

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is only required for people
born after 1988. Why is

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that? Yeah.
>> Yeah, you're spot on.

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Well, back when the law was
created, they they decided

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to. My understanding is
that they decided to set a

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date. They had to set a
time frame where they

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wanted everybody born on or
after that date to complete

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the course. Like you said,
it's one one of 88. And so

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the idea behind that then
was that folks born before

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that are essentially
grandfathered in their

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older age. But what we are
seeing, like you said, 95%

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haven't completed a safety
course, but also the

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majority of our crashes are
happening with folks that

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are older and grandfathered
in. So folks that were born

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00:05:42,776 --> 00:05:46,280
before that one, one of 88
date. And so I think it

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00:05:46,346 --> 00:05:48,415
really points to the fact
that you're never really

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too old to learn safety.
You're never, you're never

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too old to know the rules
and regulations. And we

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just want folks to remember
that the majority, the vast

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majority of our regulations
are there for your safety

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and for you to continued
enjoyment of that sport.

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>> All right. Well, we
appreciate it. Thanks very

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much for joining us from
much for joining us from