Last updated: June 2026
We’ve read the same DNR press release three summers in a row now. ATV and UTV deaths are climbing. Riders aren’t wearing seatbelts. Almost nobody has a helmet on. The safety courses sit empty while the body count ticks up. And every year, we watch the same machines roll past Ripsaw Saloon at 1117 Railroad Avenue in Prentice with the same problems visible from the parking lot. Trail conditions, maps, and staging areas are in the Price County ATV trail guide.
The Wisconsin DNR put out its latest warning on May 20, 2026, timed for Memorial Day weekend. Lt. Jacob Holsclaw, the DNR off-highway vehicle administrator, told Seehafer News that fatal crashes have increased every year since 2022. The 2025 death toll doubled 2022’s total. Through late May 2026, 14 people have already died, putting this year on pace to surpass the 42 fatalities recorded in 2025.
Here’s the question nobody in Madison is asking: if the warnings worked, the numbers would be going down. They’re not. So we’re going to look at what’s actually happening on the ground in Price County this summer, what the DNR isn’t saying, and what every rider headed through Prentice needs to know before they twist the throttle.
What Did the DNR Actually Say in Its May 2026 Safety Warning?
The May 20, 2026 statement from the DNR carried an unmistakable tone of frustration. Holsclaw noted that “Wisconsin continues to see a significant number of ATV/UTV crashes, with many operators never completing a safety course.” He emphasized that safety classes focus on crash prevention and give students “proven, real-life skills to keep them safe while out riding.”
The numbers back up the frustration. Through late May 2026, 14 individuals died in ATV/UTV crashes in Wisconsin. All 14 were riding without a helmet. One wore a seatbelt. That’s a 93% non-compliance rate on seatbelts among fatalities — a number that hasn’t budged meaningfully in three years of repeated warnings.
In 2025, UTVs accounted for 84% of all fatal ATV/UTV incidents. Of the 25 fatalities recorded by late July 2025, only four victims were confirmed wearing seatbelts. The DNR’s data makes the pattern undeniable: the vehicle has safety features, the riders skip them, and the result repeats itself.
Holsclaw told Seehafer News that the most common variable in fatal crashes over the past five years is operators or passengers riding without a helmet and a seatbelt. Not speed. Not terrain. Not weather. The single biggest predictor of death on a Wisconsin trail is two missing clicks of a buckle.
See also: Our breakdown of the full 2024-2026 Wisconsin ATV/UTV crash data covers the numbers behind the news with trail-by-trail analysis for the Northwoods.
Why Doesn’t Wisconsin’s Trail Safety Message Stick?
We’ve spent enough afternoons on the porch at Ripsaw Saloon watching riders come and go to form an opinion on this. The DNR’s messaging has a credibility problem, and it’s not the message, it’s the messenger and the medium.
Wisconsin law requires safety certification for operators born on or after January 1, 1988. Anyone older than 38 in 2026 is grandfathered out of the requirement entirely. Means a 45-year-old who’s never sat in a safety course can legally operate a 2,000-pound UTV on public trails with zero training. The DNR can issue all the press releases it wants, but the people most likely to skip safety gear are the same people the law doesn’t require to learn why they need it.
The enforcement gap is just as wide. Wisconsin has more than 65,000 miles of public roads open to ATVs and UTVs. The DNR’s warden force covers every lake, forest, and trail in the state. Simple math says a rider on a Price County trail route might go an entire summer without seeing a warden. The seatbelt law exists on paper. On gravel, it’s largely voluntary.
Then there’s the alcohol factor. More than half of ATV/UTV deaths in 2024 involved alcohol. The DNR issued 239 OWI citations on ATVs and UTVs last year. But an ATV OWI doesn’t affect your driver’s license the way a car OWI does. Wisconsin lawmakers have introduced bills to close this gap in 2023 and again in June 2025. Neither passed. As of June 2026, the two systems remain legally separate.
We pour drinks at 1117 Railroad Avenue. We see the disconnect every weekend. A rider who’d never dream of driving a car after three beers thinks nothing of operating a UTV after the same three. The law treats those two decisions differently. Physics doesn’t.
What Makes Price County’s Trail Network Different From the Rest of Wisconsin?
Price County sits at the intersection of several major Wisconsin ATV/UTV trail systems. The county’s routes connect to the Tuscobia State Trail, the Flambeau Trail system, and routes running through the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Riders pass through Prentice from all over the Midwest . Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa plates show up in our parking lot every weekend from May through October.
The terrain here creates specific risks you won’t find on flat farmland trails in the southern part of the state. Price County trails include steep grades, sharp turns through heavy timber, and road-route segments where ATVs and UTVs share pavement with logging trucks and passenger vehicles. A rollover on a forested trail with a 30-foot drop into a ravine isn’t the same as tipping over in a farm field.
Cell service in large sections of the Price County trail network is spotty to nonexistent. A crash five miles from the nearest road on a Tuesday afternoon can mean waiting hours for help if nobody knows you went down. We tell riders to carry satellite communicators or at minimum to file a route plan with someone who’ll notice if they don’t check in.
The Prentice area specifically has seen trail traffic increase sharply since 2020. Wisconsin hit a record 512,792 ATV and UTV registrations in 2024, and the Northwoods absorbed a disproportionate share of that growth. More machines on the same miles of trail means more opportunities for head-on collisions, more pressure on trail maintenance, and more inexperienced riders tackling terrain they’re not ready for.
See also: Our guide to using the Ripsaw Token covers how riders can use crypto to pay for trail supplies, drinks, and food at participating Northwoods stops.
What Are the Actual Safety Requirements for Riding in Wisconsin Right Now?
As of June 2026, here’s what Wisconsin law requires and what it doesn’t:
Operators 12 years or older born on or after January 1, 1988, must complete a DNR-approved safety course and carry certification while riding. UTV operators must be at least 16. All UTV passengers must wear seatbelts by law , though operators themselves are only required to wear them on public roads, not private ones. ATVs lack seatbelts entirely. Helmet requirements apply to operators under 18 and to all riders on public roads, but Wisconsin does not require helmets for adult ATV/UTV riders on trails.
Here’s what the law doesn’t require: safety certification for anyone born before 1988. Helmets for adults on trails. Any form of ongoing recertification. An OWI on an ATV or UTV to affect your driver’s license. The open-container law that applies to cars doesn’t apply to ATVs and UTVs on trails. The 2023 bill to close that gap died in committee.
The DNR issued 387 helmet citations and 115 seatbelt citations in 2024. Against half a million registered machines, those numbers are a rounding error. The enforcement infrastructure doesn’t match the registration volume, and every rider in Price County knows it.
Which Wisconsin Trail Safety Rules Actually Make a Difference?
We’re not going to list every DNR recommendation and pretend they all carry equal weight. Here’s what the fatality data says actually matters, ranked by impact:
Wearing a seatbelt in a UTV is the single most effective thing you can do. Of the 14 deaths in 2026, 13 victims weren’t wearing one. In 2025, at least 17 UTV fatalities involved unbelted riders. The roll cage on a modern UTV works , the DNR’s own crash investigations show that belted riders survive rollovers that eject unbelted riders.
Wearing a helmet matters second. All 14 victims in 2026 were helmetless. Head trauma appears in the majority of Wisconsin ATV/UTV fatality reports. A DOT-approved helmet costs less than a tank of gas for a modern UTV. The DNR’s own crash data shows that helmets are the second-most-commonly-missing piece of safety equipment in fatal incidents, behind only seatbelts.
Not drinking before riding matters third. More than half of 2024 fatalities involved alcohol. The correlation between alcohol involvement and unbelted operation is strong , impaired riders make impaired decisions about safety gear too.
Taking the safety course matters fourth, especially for new riders. Holsclaw noted that many crash victims “never completed a safety course.” The courses teach risk assessment, not just machine operation. Recognizing a corner you can’t take at 40 mph is a skill, and it’s teachable.
See also: Our Wisconsin supper club trail guide maps out the best food stops along the Northwoods riding circuit, from Prentice to Phillips to Park Falls.
What Do the Latest Wisconsin DNR Crash Numbers Actually Say?
The Wisconsin DNR released updated safety data in May 2026, and the picture is grim. Through late May, 14 individuals had lost their lives in UTV/ATV crashes in Wisconsin. Every single one of them was riding without a helmet. Only one was wearing a seatbelt.
That’s not an anomaly. In 2025, the DNR recorded 25 fatal UTV/ATV crashes by late July. Only four of those victims were confirmed to be wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash, with one investigation still pending. UTVs accounted for 84% of all fatalities.
Dig deeper into the 2024 numbers and the trendline gets even clearer. Last year saw a record 512,792 ATV and UTV registrations in Wisconsin , the highest ever. The DNR documented 316 injuries and 40 deaths. That’s the most injuries in a decade and the second-highest fatality count, trailing only the 47 deaths in 2021.
Lt. Jacob Holsclaw, the DNR’s off-highway vehicle administrator, has been consistent in his messaging: speed, alcohol, and careless or reckless operation are the three biggest factors in these crashes. More than half of ATV/UTV deaths in 2024 involved alcohol. Statistic hits different when you run a bar on a trail route.
How Does Alcohol Factor Into Wisconsin ATV/UTV Crashes?
Let’s not sugarcoat this. More than half of ATV/UTV deaths in Wisconsin in 2024 involved alcohol. The DNR issued 239 citations for operating while intoxicated on ATVs and UTVs last year, and those numbers have been climbing for a decade.
Here’s the thing that surprises a lot of riders: if you get cited for operating an ATV or UTV while intoxicated in Wisconsin, it doesn’t affect your driver’s license. You can keep riding even if your license has been revoked or suspended. Offenses on different recreational vehicles are treated separately rather than lumped together. That’s a loophole the DNR has flagged, but state lawmakers haven’t closed it.
In 2023, a bipartisan group of legislators introduced a bill to make it illegal to carry open containers of alcohol while driving ATVs and UTVs on trails and public roads. The bill failed to advance. In June 2025, another bill was introduced that would make riders liable for damages if they operate an ATV or UTV in a “careless, reckless or negligent manner.” That one is still working its way through the Legislature.
We’re not here to preach. We pour drinks for a living. But we also want every rider who leaves our parking lot to make it home alive. There’s a real conversation to be had about how Wisconsin treats recreational vehicle operation differently from regular driving, and right now the law is behind the reality.
What Safety Requirements Does Wisconsin Actually Enforce for ATV/UTV Riders?
Wisconsin has rules on the books, but enforcement is spotty and the requirements are full of gaps. Here’s what the law actually says as of 2026:
Anyone 12 years or older operating a UTV or ATV on public trails must complete a DNR-approved safety education course and carry proof of certification while riding. Requirement applies to operators born on or after January 1, 1988. If you were born before that date, you’re grandfathered in , no course required.
UTV operators must be at least 16 years old to ride in public areas. ATV operators must be at least 12. All UTV passengers are required by law to wear a seatbelt. But here’s the catch: UTV operators themselves are not required to wear a seatbelt on public or private roads , only passengers are. ATVs don’t have seatbelts at all.
The DNR issued 387 citations for helmet violations and 115 citations for seatbelt violations in 2024 alone. Clearly, the message isn’t getting through to enough riders. Holsclaw noted that safety classes focus on crash prevention and give students “proven, real-life skills.” But many operators never complete a course.
Wisconsin has more than 65,000 miles of public roads open to ATVs and UTVs, plus over 2,100 miles of dedicated trails. About 69% of crashes in 2024 occurred on public highways and road routes , not deep in the woods where you’d expect them.
Why Are UTVs More Dangerous Than ATVs in Wisconsin Crashes?
UTVs have been involved in 84% of all fatal ATV/UTV incidents in 2025. That’s a staggering number given that UTVs are supposed to be the “safer” option , they have roll cages, seatbelts, and side-by-side seating.
The problem isn’t the vehicle. It’s how people use them. UTVs are designed with safety features that only work if riders actually use them. A roll cage doesn’t help if you’re thrown from the vehicle because you weren’t buckled in. A seatbelt doesn’t help if it’s sitting behind you while you’re doing 50 on a gravel road.
Holsclaw put it plainly: “UTVs are designed with key safety features, like roll cages and seatbelts, that are there to protect riders in the event of a crash or rollover. But those features can only help if they’re used.”
Of the 25 fatal crashes in 2025, at least 17 victims in UTV crashes specifically were not wearing a seatbelt. The math is brutal and simple. Buckle up, or dramatically increase your odds of dying in a crash.
What Should Northwoods Bars and Trail Riders Do Differently This Summer?
We’re a bar on a trail route, so we have skin in this game. Here’s what we’re doing at Ripsaw Saloon and what we think every Northwoods establishment along a trail should consider:
First, know the trail system. Prentice sits at a crossroads of Wisconsin’s ATV/UTV network. The Price County trail system connects to hundreds of miles of routes through the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Riders come through here from all over the Midwest. We keep trail maps behind the bar and point people toward the safest routes.
Second, we talk about it. When a group rolls in and the driver is pounding whiskey, we say something. We’ve turned riders away who clearly shouldn’t have been operating. It’s awkward. It costs us a tab. We do it anyway.
Third, we support mandatory safety certification for all riders, not just those born after 1988. The grandfather clause made sense in 1988. It doesn’t make sense in 2026 when registrations are at record highs and deaths are climbing.
Fourth, we encourage riders to use designated drivers on the trails just like they would on highways. Wisconsin law doesn’t treat OWI on an ATV the same as OWI in a car, but physics doesn’t care about the legal distinction. A UTV rolling over at speed will kill you just as dead as a truck will.
See also:Our complete guide to riding the Price County ATV trail system, we cover trail conditions, parking, and the best stops along the way.
How Can You Get Wisconsin DNR ATV/UTV Safety Certified?
If you’re 12 or older and planning to ride on public trails, you need that DNR-approved safety certification. You can register for courses atDnr.wisconsin.gov. The courses cover crash prevention, trail etiquette, equipment requirements, and real-life scenario training.
For riders who’ve been at it for decades and think they don’t need a refresher , the data says otherwise. The most common variable in fatal crashes over the past five years is riders without helmets and seatbelts. A safety course might not teach you something new about throttle control, but it might be the reminder that gets you to click that buckle before you take off.
Victims in 2025 crashes ranged from 6 years old to 97. Five victims were 18 or younger. This isn’t just an experienced-rider problem. It’s an everyone problem.
See also: Check out ourWisconsin bar safety guide for trail ridersFor tips on planning a safe ride-and-drink day in the Northwoods.
What’s the Connection Between Wisconsin Bar Culture and Trail Safety?
Let’s be honest about something most bar owners won’t say out loud. Wisconsin’s trail culture and bar culture are deeply intertwined. Riders plan routes around pit stops. Bars along trail routes depend on rider traffic. That’s the reality of the Northwoods economy.
But that also means bars along trails have a responsibility. We can’t control what happens on the trail, but we can control what happens in our parking lots. We can offer water, food, and a place to wait before riding. We can call a friend, a spouse, or a shuttle service instead of letting someone head out impaired.
At Ripsaw Saloon, we’ve been at 1117 Railroad Avenue in Prentice since the beginning. We know the riders. We know the trails. We know the DNR wardens who patrol them. And we know that the best drink we can serve a trail rider sometimes is the one that keeps them off the machine until they’re safe to ride.
The DNR’s numbers are a wake-up call. 42 deaths in 2025. 14 already in 2026 by late May. Fatalities doubling in three years. Registration records being broken while safety compliance lags behind. Something has to change, and it starts with the people pouring drinks and the people sitting on machines.
See also: OurWisconsin supper club and trail ride guideCovers the full Northwoods dining and riding circuit from Prentice to Phillips and beyond.
See also: ATV trails that lead right to Ripsaw Saloon
See also: our step-by-step guide to buying Ripsaw Token
See also: our Wisconsin bar statistics page
See also: our summer 2026 seasonal cocktail guide
See also: the Wisconsin supper club ritual (start and end at Ripsaw)
Frequently Asked Questions
How many ATV/UTV deaths has Wisconsin had in 2026 so far?
Through late May 2026, the Wisconsin DNR reports 14 fatalities in ATV/UTV crashes. Every victim was riding without a helmet, and only one was wearing a seatbelt. The 2026 pace is on track to exceed the 42 deaths recorded in 2025.
Do I need a safety course to ride an ATV or UTV in Wisconsin?
Yes, if you were born on or after January 1, 1988, and you’re 12 or older. Wisconsin requires operators in that age bracket to complete a DNR-approved safety course and carry proof of certification. Riders born before 1988 are exempt. Register at dnr.wisconsin.gov.
Are seatbelts required in a UTV in Wisconsin?
Yes, for all passengers. Wisconsin law requires every UTV passenger to wear a seatbelt. Operators must wear seatbelts on public roads. On private trails, operator seatbelt use is not legally required, though the DNR strongly recommends it. In fatal crashes, nearly all victims were unbelted.
Does an ATV/UTV OWI affect my Wisconsin driver’s license?
No. An OWI citation on an ATV or UTV does not affect your regular driver’s license in Wisconsin. The offenses are tracked separately. This legal gap has been the subject of proposed legislation in 2023 and 2025, but neither bill passed as of June 2026.
Where can I ride ATVs and UTVs near Prentice, Wisconsin?
Prentice sits at a major junction in the Price County ATV/UTV trail system, with direct access to the Tuscobia State Trail, Flambeau Trail routes, and Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest trails. Ripsaw Saloon at 1117 Railroad Avenue in Prentice is a trail-accessible stop with parking, food, drinks, and trail information. Call (715) 428-2042 for current trail conditions.