Hernando County couple charged after ATV rollover injures two children

Hernando County deputies arrested a Brooksville couple after an ATV rollover near their home left two children with broken bones, a crash investigators say crossed the line from family accident to felony child neglect.

Joshua Stadelman, 38, and Jessica Stadelman, 37, were each charged with two counts of child neglect causing great bodily harm after the May 20 incident in the 14200 block of Tayco Drive. Deputies said the children were operating a Honda ATV 420cc on unpaved roads when the vehicle overturned for reasons that were not immediately clear.

The injuries were serious enough to bring criminal charges. One child suffered a broken right arm, and the other suffered a broken thumb. Under Florida Statute 827.03, child neglect that causes great bodily harm is a second-degree felony, a charge that signals prosecutors and deputies believed the circumstances involved more than an ordinary crash and pointed to culpable negligence in the care of the children.

Florida law also spells out safety requirements for ATVs. State statute 316.2074 says no person under 16 may operate, ride or be propelled on an ATV unless wearing a DOT-compliant helmet and eye protection. The law also requires a crash report when an ATV wreck causes death or an injury that requires physician treatment, reflecting the state’s view that these vehicles present serious risks when children are involved.

Those risks are not theoretical. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says ATV dangers include overturning, collisions and occupant ejection, and estimates an annual average of more than 800 deaths and about 100,000 emergency-department-treated OHV injuries nationwide. The agency also reported 2,448 OHV deaths in the United States from 2018 through 2020.

For Hernando County parents, the case lands in a community where rollover crashes have already carried devastating consequences. In November 2025, a 4-year-old boy died after being ejected from a pickup truck during a rollover crash in the county, a reminder that restraint, supervision and vehicle safety remain high-stakes issues whether the vehicle is on the road or off it.

The Stadelman case now puts those concerns squarely before local families this riding season. In rural and semi-rural parts of Hernando County, where ATVs are common, deputies are showing that when children are hurt badly enough, the question is no longer just how the crash happened. It is whether the adults responsible did enough to prevent it.