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I think they're just worried about the potential liability issues. It's one thing to have over-zealous pickup truck and other 4x4 drivers get stuck and require an expensive tow down island...it's an entirely different thing to try and airlift a teenager or other ATV rider if they get into a bad accident down island. There are no hospitals within reasonable travelling distance of North Padre Island/Padre Island National Seashore, particularly not if you're scores of miles down island or on the interior.
Also, they are probably justifiably concerned that some ATV riders won't heed the laws and will try to ride on the sand dunes, which will destabilize them and undue the preservation efforts the park was created for. Granted, that seems counter-intuitive when cars and trucks are allowed to drive down island, but it's MUCH harder to 'sneak' a truck or jeep into the dunes than it would be to do the same with an ATV. And again, we get into liability issues...in that situation, no one would even know if the riders are missing/injured.
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