Jim Downey's 11-year-old son died riding a motocross bike. Kenny Morris Jr. shattered a vertebrae and is paralyzed. Michael Lewis lost a leg.

The accidents occurred at privately run motocross tracks from Devore to Lake Elsinore and Perris to Anza where more than 200,000 riders a year walk past signs warning them of the dangers. They pay $20 a day to race up, down and around dirt hills.

But it sometimes comes with a steeper price.

In addition to providing thrills to fans and participants, motocross tracks in Riverside and San Bernardino counties have seen at least a dozen deaths and thousands of injuries in 10 years, track owners said. At Lake Elsinore Motocross Park alone, five riders have died and 1,140 have been taken to hospitals since the park opened in 1999, said Randy Hiner, park vice president.

Some track owners say the accidents are due to daredevil riders. Others connected to the sport say the injuries are due to a lack of regulation -- the kind that protects participants in other sports.

In Riverside County, Downey, Morris and Lewis are leading a grassroots effort to regulate track safety by lobbying track owners and focusing on education. Some county and city governments in the Inland area have taken limited steps to enhance safety but there is no overreaching plan to govern the sport and no state or national effort to make it safer.

Some riders like it that way.

"You involve yourself in the sport with the knowledge you could get hurt, just like skydiving" said John Kneisly, 48, who moved to Menifee from Santa Cruz almost three years ago to be closer to motocross tracks. "If the chute doesn't open, you have to realize that could happen."

His friend, Jeff Desenna, 47, of San Diego, broke his leg last year while riding. After skipping physical therapy sessions and ignoring his girlfriend's objections, he was riding three months later.

"It was kind of a macho thing," Desenna said, sitting on his bike in the Lake Elsinore Motocross Park's dirt parking lot recently. "I had to do it. I didn't want to look like a wuss."

Restrictions?

Safety rules by the American Motorcyclist Association, the sport's largest sanctioning body, usually apply only to association-sanctioned races at tracks.

City- and county-issued operating permits set limited standards on issues such as the type of emergency vehicles that need to be on site. Those standards apply during races and non-race days when riders gather at tracks to practice without an audience. No state regulations govern off-road riding at tracks.

As a result, owners are often able to set their own rules. Some have emergency medical personnel on site every day; others require them only on race days. Some tracks say riders must wear chest protectors; others don't.

Most track owners and the motocross industry officials don't want further regulation.

"There's no such thing as a dangerous track," Rob Gladden, American Motorcyclist Association project manager, said by telephone. "The track is just dirt. It's the decisions people make."

Donna Edwards, owner of Perris Raceway, is more blunt.

"How do you regulate stupidity?" she asked.

Riverside and San Bernardino county supervisors are taking some steps to regulate riders. Responding to noise and dust complaints, they are focusing on riders who gather at private property in rural areas rather than at organized tracks. A proposed Riverside County ordinance also would set limited safety guidelines for future motocross parks, Mark Balys, deputy planning director, said by telephone.

They include requiring track owners to separate spectators from the races with fences or landscaping. They also want traffic plans to guarantee access for emergency vehicles. Existing tracks wouldn't be subject to the new guidelines, Balys said.

Kneisly, the rider from Menifee, agrees with some of the guidelines but also doesn't think the sport needs further regulation.

"That's the way it seems to be in everything: People don't like watching other people have fun," he said. "So they want to shut it down."

Grassroots Regulation

In the past two years, Downey, Morris and Lewis founded two grassroots organizations dedicated to improving motocross safety.

Lewis created the Lake Elsinore-based Sports Activities Furthering Education to Today's Youth, or SAFETY. The 50-year-old from Lake Elsinore lost his leg after a crash at a Virginia track in 1972 yet still rides on a specially outfitted bike.

Downey and Morris head the Canyon-Lake based Brett Downey Safety Foundation.

It was started by Downey and named after his 11-year-old son who died after he fell off his bike and was hit by another rider in 2004 at Glen Helen Raceway in Devore. Morris became paralyzed after crashing, landing on his head and shattering a vertebrae at a 1998 race at Glen Helen.

Both organizations propose a list of about 10 safety guidelines to track owners, including that riders wear head-to-toe safety gear. Downey and Morris are trying to be nonconfrontational with track owners, even those who won't cooperate.

"We're telling the track owners, 'You better wake up and govern yourselves before the government comes in and puts all kinds of rules in place,' " Downey said.

Lewis plans to go to area hospitals to find out how many riders are injured at non-cooperating tracks. He also wants to create a rating system, similar to health department letter grades for restaurants. The intention is to post them at tracks and list them in national motocross magazines.

Dr. Christopher Alexander -- a Murrieta orthopedic surgeon, board member of the Brett Downey Foundation and motocross rider -- estimates that 25 percent of his patients are riders. About 33 percent of their injuries could be prevented if safety guidelines are followed, he said.

Track Compliance

The variety of safety guidelines tracks use is illustrated by the emergency-service personnel on site.

At Lake Elsinore Motocross Park, at least one emergency medical technician is on duty weekdays and two to three are there on weekends, Hiner said.

Glen Helen Raceway has one or two ambulances on site during weekend races but no ambulance or EMT on weekdays when riders practice, said Lori Bryant, track manager.

There is one EMT at Perris Raceway when riders practice and two on race days, said Donna Edwards, track co-owner.

At Cahuilla Creek Motocross Park in Anza, an EMT patrols during regular practice days and an ambulance is on site if a race promoter requests one, said Ian Runyon, track spokesman. When private groups rent the park, its members decide if they want an EMT, Runyon said.

Officials at Starwest Motocross Park in Perris didn't return phone calls.

Despite the variety of approaches, leaders of the Brett Downey Foundation and SAFETY believe they're making progress. They cite the Lake Elsinore park, where all employees have taken CPR classes, free track etiquette and safety courses are held and riders are required to wear head-to-toe safety gear instead of just helmets. And there are plans to fence all eight tracks and give each track a single entrance and exit.

Richie Ruggiero, 25, of Costa Mesa, bought a full set of safety gear when he started riding in November 2004, he said, sitting in his pickup bed while getting ready for a recent day of riding at the Lake Elsinore park. He figures the chest protector prevented a serious injury when he crashed last year and a bike landed on him.

That's an example of why Brett Downey Foundation officials urge track owners to follow foundation safety guidelines. At the same time officials recognize the limitations of an organization that relies on volunteers and riders to enforce the guidelines.

"Realistically, it boils down to they don't have to do anything," Morris said of track owners. "We're hoping people see the difference between tracks doing the right thing and tracks doing the wrong thing."