Take Your Pick: a) Child Neglect .. b) Child Abuse

"We've got five children -- a six-year-old operating a very large ATV, with a two-year-old, a four-year-old and two nine-year-olds."
"Were they being supervised? How did they come about operating the ATV?"
"You've got a six-year-old girl that obviously had no intention of doing this. We are talking about a 500-cc machine, and that would be a handful for a lot of adults."
Elgin Ontario Provincial Police Constable Troy Carlson

Where were the adults? Presumably from among the five children under the age of ten there were some parents around, somewhere at the rural home they gathered at in Elgin County. Must have been quite the scenario, possibly extended family, happy to see one another in a summertime reunion, the children congregating in their own little circle of fun. And out in the country children are not, it seems, trailed as relentlessly as their urban cousins to ensure they don't get into any mischief.

Imagine if the children were being harassed how that would  spoil their fun. If someone told them they couldn't pile onto the ATV, it wasn't meant to carry that many people to begin with, even if they were on the small side. And because they were on the small side, it just wouldn't be possible for any of them, not the six-year-old girl nor either of the ten-year-olds, to manage the powerful machine. Imagine, some worry-wart telling them, well if you must give it a try, at least put on helmets.

But you'd imagine wrong, evidently. Although details have not yet emerged, other than that a six-year-old girl was piloting the adult-sized all-terrain vehicle and none of the five children were wearing helmets or had any safety gear, all piled on the vehicle as it sped along. A two-year-old in the company of older children possibly with the instruction that the older ones look to the care of the young one, emerged from the resulting crash unhurt.

But a nine-year-old boy was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries It would seem the little girl was attempting to turn a corner when she pressed the throttle by accident and "lost control and collided with two pine trees", according to investigating police. Which led the nine-year-old to hit a tree as he was thrown from the vehicle where he was trapped between the ATV and the tree.

When the adults heard the collision they responded by rushing to the scene, freeing the child. Who was then flown by air ambulance to hospital, placed on life support and listed in critical condition. As of a day ago.