Children riding ATVs seem to be more exposed to potentially disabling injuries, a study reports.

The number of ATV-related deaths or visits to the emergency rooms following a ride with these vehicles doubled from 1995 to 2005.

"There's no such thing as a safe ATV for kids. Children shouldn't be on an ATV as either a driver or a passenger,” researcher Chetan C. Shah, MD, a radiology fellow at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock told WebMD.

All-terrain vehicles or ATVs weight up to 600 pounds and can travel at speeds of 65 mph or more, which is very dangerous for children. Almost 40,400 children under age 16 were treated for ATV-related injuries in 2005, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. This is more than twice the number in 1995. About 120 of these kids died because of the injuries, nearly double the number in 1995.

Shah based his study on analyzing 500 children and teens injured in ATV accidents and brought to the emergency room over eight years. The findings were worrisome. The number of ATV injuries more than doubled from 1998 to 2006.

"We were seeing so many injuries that were horrifying -- kids coming in with partial amputated limbs, severe head injuries, deaths -- that we wanted to document the extent of the problem," Shah said.

Bone fractures were the most common injury related to ATV riding. About 208 children suffered from such an injury. Head injuries were next on the common injuries list. About 85 kids suffered from skull fractures, 66 faced bleeding in the brain and 59 children had damage to the brain tissue. There were cases when the brain did not heal completely. "Some kids end up with learning problems," Shah said.

About 12 children ended with having their arm or leg amputated because their injuries could not be solved otherwise.

Twenty-one children suffered spinal fractures and five had spinal cord injuries.

Six kids died after ATV accidents, according to the study.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children under 16 not to use ATVs. Parents are also advised to forbid their children ATVs or at least to supervise them and make sure they are wearing protective gear, says Tim Buche, president of the Specialty Vehicle Institute of America, an Irvine, Calif., group representing the major makers of ATVs.

Some doctors, on the other hand, fear that ATVs enchants more children every day.

"Kids see ATVs on TV. They see their friends riding them, and they're very attractive," says Donald Frush, a pediatric radiologist at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

Shah presented his findings at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. The study included only children who made it to the hospital alive.