Who Is Liable for a Snowmobile or ATV Injury in Massachusetts?

The operator is liable for their own negligence, and in Massachusetts the adult who handed over the machine very often is too. M.G.L. c. 90B, sec. 26E provides that any person aged 18 or older with custody or control of a snow vehicle or recreation vehicle who knowingly permits someone under 18 to operate it “shall be held liable, jointly and severally with the operator, for any damage or injuries caused by such operator’s operation of the vehicle.” Subsection (b) extends the same joint liability to permitting an adult to operate in violation of the chapter, and subsection (c) closes the two escape hatches most people reach for: “Lack of ownership of the vehicle or mistake as to the age of the operator shall not be defenses.” Almost nobody finds that section, because snowmobiles and ATVs are not governed by chapter 90, the motor vehicle law. They are governed by chapter 90B, the same chapter that governs boats. To talk through a Massachusetts off-road crash, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is offered without charge.

The Wrong Chapter Is the Obvious One

A snowmobile has an engine, a throttle and a registration number. An ATV has four wheels and goes faster than most people drive to work. Every instinct says the rules must be in chapter 90, where the Commonwealth keeps its motor vehicle law, and that is where a person looks after a crash on a trail in Plymouth County or a field in the Berkshires.

They are not there. M.G.L. c. 90B, secs. 20 to 35 governs “snow vehicles” and “recreation vehicles” from registration through penalties, and chapter 90B is the boating chapter. Sections 1 to 19 of it cover motorboats, personal watercraft, livery requirements and the diver’s flag. Section 20 then opens a second half of the chapter for machines that never touch water. A person who searches the motor vehicle law for the rules on an ATV finds nothing and concludes, reasonably and wrongly, that there are none.

The second wrong turn is the recreational use statute. Massachusetts law does limit a landowner’s exposure when land is opened to the public for recreation without a fee, and a person hurt on somebody’s woodlot often hears that and stops there. That statute is about the LANDOWNER. It says nothing about the operator who drove into them, and nothing about the adult who handed that operator the key. Those are the defendants sec. 26E is written about.

What Counts as a Snow Vehicle or a Recreation Vehicle

Section 20 defines the machines, and the definitions are broader than most readers expect.

A snow vehicle is a motor vehicle designed to travel over ice or snow, with a curb weight of not more than 453 kilograms or 1,000 pounds, driven by a track or tracks in contact with the snow or ice and steered by a ski or skis.

A recreation vehicle, also called an off-highway vehicle, is “any motor vehicle designed or modified for use over unimproved terrain for recreation or pleasure while not being operated on a public way as defined in chapter 90.” The section then lists what that includes, and the list does not stop where a reader expects: “all-terrain vehicles, off-highway motorcycles, dirt bikes, recreation utility vehicles and all registered motor vehicles while not being operated on a public way.”

Read that last clause again. An ordinary registered pickup truck, driven on a trail or across a field rather than on a public way, falls inside chapter 90B’s definition of a recreation vehicle for the purposes of sections 21 to 35. The Legislature wrote one carve-out into the same sentence: vehicles “operated exclusively for agricultural, forestry, lumbering or construction purposes shall not be subject to this chapter,” and that carve-out is structured as an affirmative defense, meaning it is something the operator raises and supports rather than something the Commonwealth has to disprove.

An all-terrain vehicle is a motorized recreational vehicle designed or modified for travel on 4 low pressure tires, with a seat designed to be straddled and handlebars for steering. A recreation utility vehicle, the side-by-side, has 4 to 6 low pressure tires, an engine under 1,500 cubic centimeters, a dry weight of not more than 1,800 pounds, a bench seat and a steering wheel. The distinction matters because the age rules in sec. 26 are written against ATVs and utility vehicles specifically.

Answer Capsule

Liability for a Massachusetts snowmobile or ATV injury runs under M.G.L. c. 90B, secs. 20 to 35, not under the chapter 90 motor vehicle law. The operator answers for negligent operation. Separately, M.G.L. c. 90B, sec. 26E imposes joint and several liability on any person 18 or older with custody or control who knowingly permitted a person under 18 to operate, and on an owner or other person who knowingly permitted an adult to operate in violation of the chapter, for injuries caused by that operator; neither lack of ownership nor mistake about the operator’s age is a defense. The chapter sets hard rules a violation of which shapes a negligence case: no ATV or utility vehicle operation under 14 under sec. 26(a)(1), no engine over 90 cubic centimeters between 14 and 16, protective headgear for every operator and passenger including anyone towed on a sled or inflated tube under sec. 26(d), written permission or an equivalent for private land under sec. 26(e), and a report to a law enforcement officer immediately plus a filed report within 48 hours under sec. 27 whenever there is injury, death or more than $50 in property damage. There is no personal injury protection layer, because no motor vehicle liability policy is written on a machine registered under chapter 90B. Call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS; the first telephone consultation is offered without charge.

Section 26E, the Defendant Nobody Looks For

This is the section worth reading twice, because it is short, it is civil rather than criminal, and it creates a second pocket to recover from in exactly the cases where the operator has nothing.

Subsection (a) covers the minor operator. Any person aged 18 or older with custody or control of a snow vehicle or recreation vehicle who knowingly permits a person under 18 to operate it is “liable, jointly and severally with the operator, for any damage or injuries caused by such operator’s operation of the vehicle and for any fines, penalties or restitution resulting therefrom.” Joint and several means the injured person may collect the whole judgment from that adult.

Subsection (b) is the one that surprises people, because it has nothing to do with age. An owner “or other person who knowingly permits a person 18 years of age or older to operate a snow vehicle or a recreation vehicle in violation of this chapter shall be held liable, jointly and severally, with the operator, for any damage or injuries caused by such operator’s negligent operation.” The trigger is permitting operation in violation of the chapter, and the chapter is full of violations: riding on a public way under sec. 25, riding without protective headgear under sec. 26(d), riding on private land without the owner’s written authorization under sec. 26(e), riding an unregistered machine under sec. 22. An adult who lends a snowmobile to another adult knowing the rider does not intend to wear a helmet has permitted operation in violation of sec. 26(d).

Subsection (c) removes the two answers that would otherwise end the inquiry: “Lack of ownership of the vehicle or mistake as to the age of the operator shall not be defenses in an action filed pursuant to this section.” A person who borrowed the machine themselves and then passed it along is still a person with custody or control, and a good-faith belief that the rider was 18 does not help.

Section 26(b) states the underlying prohibition in the criminal register for the minor case, and uses the same closing language: “Lack of ownership of the vehicle or mistake as to the age of the operator shall not be available defenses.”

The Age and Engine Rules That Decide Most Cases

Section 26(a) draws two hard lines, and a violation of either is usually the central fact of a claim involving a child.

No person under 14 years of age may operate an all-terrain vehicle or a recreation utility vehicle at all. The exception is narrow: operation in preparation for, or as a participant in, a sanctioned race, rally or organized event supervised by a person aged 18 or older and authorized or approved by a municipal permitting authority, with a further affirmative defense in a delinquency proceeding for supervised operation within 21 days before such an event.

Between 14 and 16, the engine is capped. No person in that range may operate an ATV or utility vehicle with an engine capacity greater than 90 cubic centimeters, and a machine at or under 90 cubic centimeters may be operated only if the rider is directly supervised by a person 18 years of age or older.

“Directly supervised” is itself defined in sec. 20, and the definition is demanding rather than nominal. The supervising adult must be “sufficiently close to the operator at all times that the operator’s vehicle is in operation, such that a reasonable person acting as supervisor under the totality of the circumstances including, but not limited to, vehicle and ambient noise, the landscape, topography and geography of the location, and the operator’s wearing of protective headgear, would reasonably believe that he is maintaining visual contact and verbal communication with the operator.” An adult standing at the far end of a field is not supervising within that sentence.

Section 21 adds a training requirement that runs to 18, not to 16. No person under 18 years of age may operate a recreation vehicle unless they have successfully completed a recreation vehicle safety and responsibility course approved by the director of environmental law enforcement, and proof of completion must be carried on the operator’s person while riding. Where the operator is under 16, a parent or legal guardian must personally participate in at least one session of that course.

Helmets, Including on the Tube Behind the Machine

Section 26(d) is written more broadly than any helmet rule in the motor vehicle law, and it is the provision most often violated on a family’s own land.

“No person shall operate or ride in or on a snow vehicle or a recreation vehicle or ride in or on a sled, inflated tube or similar article attached to such vehicle and which is pulled by such vehicle, without wearing protective headgear.” The headgear must conform to the standards the registrar of motor vehicles prescribes.

That sentence reaches the passenger, and it reaches the child being towed on a tube behind a snowmobile, which is a common winter activity in Massachusetts and a common mechanism of serious injury. An adult who tows a child on a tube without a helmet has permitted operation in violation of the chapter, which is the trigger sec. 26E(b) is written on.

Where These Machines May and May Not Be Ridden

Two sections control location, and both produce violations that shape fault.

Section 25 keeps them off the road. No person may operate a snow vehicle or recreation vehicle upon any state, county, city or town way, nor on the plowed snowbanks of such ways, nor upon any other public way, nor upon the right-of-way limits of a controlled access highway. There are narrow emergency exceptions the registrar or a mayor or board of selectmen may open when public ways are impassable to conventional vehicles.

Crossing a public way is allowed but conditioned. No person under 16 and a half years of age may operate across or on a public way unless they hold a valid licence or right to operate a motor vehicle or are directly supervised by a person 18 or older. Any operator must come to a full stop, cross as directly as possible, make the crossing safely and without interfering with the free movement of vehicular traffic, and yield the right of way to all other vehicular traffic. For recreation vehicles there is an additional condition: the public way and the crossing must be marked and approved for use by recreation vehicles by the applicable state or local authorities as part of a publicly or privately authorized trail system. No operator may cross a controlled access highway at all.

Section 26(e) controls private and public land. Operating on privately owned property is prohibited unless the operator is the owner or lessee or an immediate family member of the owner or lessee; or holds either a document signed by the owner, lessee or agent authorizing the operation, or valid proof of current membership in a club or organization that has been granted express authorization, with operation consistent with that authorization and any restrictions imposed with it; or the owner or lessee has designated the area by posting reasonable notice in a manner approved by the director. On publicly owned property, operation is limited to trails marked and designated for such vehicles, or requires the express permission of the owner.

What to Do After a Massachusetts Snowmobile or ATV Crash, In Order

1. Get medical attention and say what happened. An off-road mechanism is often written into a chart as a fall. The record should say a snowmobile or an ATV was involved, because that record is usually the earliest document in the case.
2. Notify a law enforcement officer immediately. Section 27 requires it whenever the incident resulted in death, injury to a person, or damage to property in excess of fifty dollars. Immediately is the statute’s word.
3. File the report within 48 hours. The same section requires the operator or owner to file a report of the incident with the division within forty-eight hours, on forms prescribed by the director. That deadline runs faster than almost anything else in Massachusetts injury law.
4. Photograph the machine, the registration number and the terrain before anything is moved. Section 22 requires the registration number to be displayed on both sides of the cowling, not less than 3 inches high and not less than half an inch wide, in a color in marked and distinct contrast to the background. Whether it was there, and what it read, can matter.
5. Write down who owned the machine and who gave permission. This is the sec. 26E question, and it is the one witnesses forget first. Who had custody or control, what they were told about the rider’s age and experience, and what was said before the key changed hands.
6. Record the safety equipment. Who wore headgear, who did not, and whether anyone was being towed on a sled or an inflated tube.
7. Preserve the permission trail. The signed authorization, the club membership card, the posted sign at the trailhead. Section 26(e) turns on documents that get thrown away within a week.
8. Call a Massachusetts attorney before giving a recorded statement. The chapter’s violations cut in several directions at once, and the first account given to an insurer tends to set the shape of the argument.

Chapter 90B Against Chapter 90, Side by Side

Question	Snow vehicle or recreation vehicle (c. 90B)	Car or truck on a public way (c. 90)
Registration	Required under sec. 22, issued by the director, number on both sides of the cowling, valid two years	Registered with the Registry of Motor Vehicles
Operator licence	Not required; sec. 22 states a motor vehicle licence or learner’s permit “shall not be required”	Required
Minimum age	Under 14 may not operate an ATV or utility vehicle at all; 14 to 16 capped at 90 cubic centimeters with direct supervision	16 and a half for a learner’s permit
Headgear	Required for operator, passenger and anyone towed on a sled or tube, sec. 26(d)	Required for motorcycle riders
Crash reporting	Immediate notice to a law enforcement officer and a report filed within 48 hours, triggered above $50 in damage, sec. 27	Written report to the Registry within 5 days, triggered above $1,000 in damage
Liability of the person who lent it	Joint and several under sec. 26E, with ownership and mistake as to age removed as defenses	Governed by ordinary negligent entrustment principles
No-fault medical payments	None; no motor vehicle liability policy is written on the machine	Personal injury protection under c. 90, sec. 34M

Key Terms

• Snow vehicle. A motor vehicle designed to travel over ice or snow, curb weight not more than 453 kilograms or 1,000 pounds, driven by tracks and steered by skis, under M.G.L. c. 90B, sec. 20.
• Recreation vehicle. Any motor vehicle designed or modified for use over unimproved terrain for recreation or pleasure while not being operated on a public way, including ATVs, dirt bikes, off-highway motorcycles, utility vehicles and registered motor vehicles while off a public way.
• Directly supervised. A statutory standard, not a general one: the adult must be close enough that a reasonable supervisor would believe they are maintaining visual contact and verbal communication with the operator, judged against noise, landscape and headgear.
• Joint and several liability. Liability under which the injured person may collect the entire judgment from any one liable party, which is what sec. 26E gives against the adult who permitted the operation.
• Serious bodily injury. Defined in sec. 26B as bodily injury creating a substantial risk of death, or involving total disability or the loss or substantial impairment of some bodily function for a substantial period of time.
• Personal injury protection. The no-fault first-party medical and wage benefit that a Massachusetts motor vehicle liability policy carries under c. 90, sec. 34M, and which no chapter 90B registration produces.

The Criminal Case Running Alongside

Section 26B sets out conduct that frequently accompanies a serious off-road injury, and a charge under it changes the evidence available in the civil case.

Operating a snow vehicle or recreation vehicle recklessly, or negligently so that the lives or safety of the public might be endangered, carries a fine of not less than $250 nor more than $1,000. Leaving the scene after knowingly colliding with or causing injury to another machine or to property carries the same range where the property damage exceeded $500. Leaving the scene after knowingly causing bodily injury to another person carries a fine of not less than $500 nor more than $1,000.

Where reckless or negligent operation causes serious bodily injury, sec. 26B(d) provides for imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than 2 and a half years, or a fine of not less than $300 nor more than $5,000, or both. Where it causes death, sec. 26B(e) provides for imprisonment in a jail or house of correction for not more than 2 and a half years, or in the state prison for not more than 5 years, or a fine of not more than $5,000, or both.

Section 26A separately addresses operation under the influence of alcohol or other intoxicants, and sec. 26C provides for forfeiture of the machine in defined circumstances.

The penalty schedule in sec. 34 covers the rest. Violations of secs. 21 to 24 draw a fine of not less than $250 nor more than $500. Violations of subsections (e) to (h) of sec. 26, the property and operating-manner rules, draw not less than $250 nor more than $1,000. Violations of sec. 25 or of subsections (a) to (d) of sec. 26, which include the age rules and the headgear rule, draw $250 for a first offense and not less than $500 nor more than $2,500 for a second or subsequent offense, with the machine subject to forfeiture under sec. 26C on the repeat.

Who Pays, and Why There Is No PIP

This is where an off-road case diverges hardest from a car case, and the divergence runs in both directions.

There is no personal injury protection layer. Personal injury protection is a feature of a Massachusetts motor vehicle liability policy, defined through M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A and paid under sec. 34M. A snowmobile or an ATV is registered with the director of environmental law enforcement under chapter 90B, and no motor vehicle liability policy is written on it. So the automatic payment of the first medical bills that arrives within days after a car crash does not arrive here. The medical bills go to health insurance, and the recovery comes from whatever liability coverage the responsible parties carry.

That coverage is often somewhere unexpected. A homeowner’s or a farm policy may respond to an incident on the insured’s own land, and the adult exposed under sec. 26E is frequently a homeowner even where the operator is not. Establishing who had custody or control is therefore not only a liability question but a coverage question, and it is the first thing worth investigating.

On the other side of the ledger, the recovery is not gated by the car-accident threshold in the ordinary way. M.G.L. c. 231, sec. 6D restricts pain and suffering damages in a tort action “arising out of the ownership, operation, maintenance or use of a motor vehicle within this commonwealth” unless reasonable medical expenses exceed two thousand dollars or the injury caused death, loss of a body member, permanent and serious disfigurement, defined loss of sight or hearing, or a fracture. Whether that section reaches a particular off-road crash is a real question rather than a settled one, and the sweeping chapter 90B definition does not decide it, because sec. 20 limits itself by its own terms to “sections twenty-one to thirty-five, inclusive.” It governs what chapter 90B requires. It does not rewrite chapter 231. Anyone told flatly that the threshold does or does not apply to their off-road claim is being told something the statutes do not settle on their face, and that is a question for a lawyer looking at the actual facts.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Who is liable for a snowmobile or ATV injury in Massachusetts?

A: The operator, for their own negligence, and frequently a second person as well. M.G.L. c. 90B, sec. 26E(a) makes any person aged 18 or older with custody or control of the machine who knowingly permits a person under 18 to operate it jointly and severally liable with that operator for any damage or injuries caused. Subsection (b) does the same where the person permitted is an adult but the operation was in violation of the chapter. Under subsection (c), neither lack of ownership of the vehicle nor a mistake about the operator’s age is a defense.

Q: Do snowmobiles and ATVs fall under the Massachusetts motor vehicle law?

A: No, and this is the most common wrong turn. They are governed by M.G.L. c. 90B, secs. 20 to 35, which is the boating chapter. Section 22 provides in terms that “a motor vehicle license or learner’s permit shall not be required for the operation of a snow vehicle or a recreation vehicle,” and registration is issued by the director of environmental law enforcement rather than by the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Q: How old do you have to be to ride an ATV in Massachusetts?

A: Section 26(a)(1) bars anyone under 14 from operating an all-terrain vehicle or a recreation utility vehicle, with a narrow exception for a sanctioned race, rally or organized event that is supervised by a person 18 or older and authorized by a municipal permitting authority. Between 14 and 16, sec. 26(a)(2) prohibits an engine capacity greater than 90 cubic centimeters, and permits a machine at or under 90 cubic centimeters only under the direct supervision of a person 18 or older. Separately, sec. 21 requires anyone under 18 operating a recreation vehicle to have completed an approved safety and responsibility course and to carry proof of it, and requires a parent or guardian of an operator under 16 to attend at least one session of that course.

Q: Is a helmet required on a snowmobile in Massachusetts?

A: Yes, and the requirement is broader than most people realise. Section 26(d) provides that no person shall operate or ride in or on a snow vehicle or a recreation vehicle, “or ride in or on a sled, inflated tube or similar article attached to such vehicle and which is pulled by such vehicle,” without wearing protective headgear conforming to the standards the registrar prescribes. The child being towed on a tube is inside that sentence.

Q: Does my car insurance pay my medical bills after an ATV crash?

A: Not through personal injury protection. That benefit belongs to a Massachusetts motor vehicle liability policy under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A and sec. 34M, and no such policy is written on a machine registered under chapter 90B, so no no-fault layer opens automatically. Medical bills usually go to health insurance first, and the recovery comes from the liability coverage of whoever is responsible, which in these cases is often a homeowner’s or farm policy rather than an auto policy. Whether any other coverage on your own policies reaches the incident depends on the policy language.

Q: Do I have to report a Massachusetts ATV or snowmobile accident?

A: Yes, and the deadline is short. Section 27 requires the operator or owner involved in a collision, accident or other casualty resulting in death or injury to a person, or damage to property in excess of fifty dollars, to notify a law enforcement officer immediately and to file a report of the incident with the division within forty-eight hours, on forms prescribed by the director.

Q: Can I ride an ATV on a road in Massachusetts?

A: Generally no. Section 25 prohibits operation upon any state, county, city or town way, on the plowed snowbanks of such ways, on any other public way, or upon the right-of-way limits of a controlled access highway. Crossing is permitted under conditions: a full stop first, crossing as directly as possible, yielding to all other vehicular traffic, and, for a recreation vehicle, only where the public way and the crossing are marked and approved for such use as part of an authorized trail system. Nobody under 16 and a half may cross without a licence or direct supervision by a person 18 or older, and no one may cross a controlled access highway.

Q: Can I ride on private land if I have the owner’s permission?

A: Section 26(e) requires more than a spoken yes. Unless the operator is the owner or lessee or an immediate family member of the owner or lessee, the operator must have in their possession either a document signed by the owner, lessee or agent authorizing the operation, or valid proof of current membership in a club or organization that has been granted express authorization, and the riding must stay consistent with that authorization and any restrictions on it. The alternative is that the owner has designated the area by posting reasonable notice in a manner approved by the director. On public land, riding is limited to trails marked and designated for such vehicles, or requires the owner’s express permission.

Q: Is Jimmy Knows AI giving me legal advice?

A: No. This is general information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Whether any of it applies to a particular machine or a particular crash depends on facts that are not in this article, including how the machine was registered and classified, who had custody or control of it, where the incident happened and what the available insurance actually covers. For advice about a specific situation, speak with a Massachusetts attorney.

Talking to a Lawyer

An off-road injury case usually comes apart into two investigations rather than one. The first is the ordinary negligence question about how the machine was being operated. The second is the chapter 90B question, and it is the one that decides whether there is anyone worth suing: who owned the machine, who had custody or control of it, what they knew about the rider, and whether any of the chapter’s rules on age, engine size, headgear, registration or permission were being broken at the moment of the crash. Section 26E turns the answers to that second set of questions into a second liable party, and it does so on facts that live in people’s memories and in documents that are thrown away quickly.

Where an off-road crash happens on someone else’s land, the limits on a landowner’s exposure are a separate question, and they are set out in the Massachusetts recreational use statute. Where the machine was a motorcycle ridden off-road rather than an ATV, the general rules are in Massachusetts motorcycle accident law. The reason no no-fault layer opens here is the same reason it does not open on the water, which is set out in how a Massachusetts boating accident claim works.

Jim Glaser Law can be reached at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day. The first telephone consultation is offered without charge. Cases accepted on a contingency basis carry no attorney fee unless there is a recovery, and case costs and expenses are addressed in the written fee agreement signed at intake.