Sharing Safety Skills
When Kristen Almer lost her 11-year-old nephew Logan in a tragic ATV accident, her family’s life changed forever. She then turned unimaginable grief into a mission to help prevent similar tragedies for other families. In this episode, host Heather Wilson Schiltz talks with Kristen about how that devastating loss led to years of research, difficult questions, and eventually the creation of the RideSafe Foundation.
This conversation goes far beyond statistics. Kristen explains the common patterns she has uncovered in youth ATV and UTV tragedies, why so many families don’t recognize the risks until it’s too late, and how RideSafe is working to reach kids directly through schools and community partnerships. From industry blind spots to practical ways communities can help, this episode offers an honest look at a problem that affects far more families than many realize.
🎧 What You’ll Hear:
• The story of Logan and the tragedy that changed Kristen’s life
• What Kristen uncovered after years of researching youth ATV and UTV incidents
• Why many families using these vehicles recreationally don’t see themselves in traditional powersports safety messaging
• The common mistakes and overlooked factors that show up again and again in youth tragedies
• How RideSafe Foundation works with schools and communities to create hands-on educational events
• Why racers, athletes and the broader powersports industry may be part of the solution
• How parents, schools, companies, and local communities can support the mission
📲 Connect with Kristen Almer and the RideSafe Foundation on LinkedIn
🌐 Learn more at RideSafeFoundation.org
🌐 Follow the RideSafe Foundation on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook
🔔 Subscribe for more stories and strategies from inside the motorsports world
“Professional athletes have mastered the art of safety. If they hadn’t mastered the art of safety, they would never be able to do anything significant — let alone something great. So this is what’s lost on the population. And I think it’s lost on the industry at this point, too. People are failing to recognize that your athletes, even amateur athletes and professional athletes, are your solution to this problem. They know how to ride. They learned how to ride, and they learned how to ride at the racetrack.
What the industry has done is tried to create environments of certified safety instructors and disperse them across the nation thinking that people are going to be like, ‘Hey, great. I’m going to go, you know, learn how to ride.’ Well, it’s problematic for a couple of reasons. It’s not that they’re not trying to do something. They have limited budgets and limited staff. And the size and scale of the number of people that are riding today is unmanageable for a small group of people to be able to disseminate the proper message and the proper resources.”
-Kristen Almer, RideSafe Foundation Executive Director
