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ATV Deaths, Injuries Climbing

After 20 years, feds no closer to a solution

By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.com

February 14, 2008

ATVs • ATV Deaths, Injuries Climbing • All-Terrain Vehicles Not Child's Play • CPSC Warns Meerkat 50 Youth ATVs Defective and Dangerous • Pressure Builds For Tougher ATV Rules • Doctors Want Children Banned from ATVs • Feds Take Closer Look at ATV Injuries and Deaths • Five Worst Summer Jobs • Recalls

At least 555 people including 111 children, died riding all-terrain vehicles in 2006, according to a government report released today and the agency charged with protecting consumers appears nowhere close to making the dangerous vehicles any safer.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) expects the casualty figures to rise as more hospitals and coroners submit data to the agency.

In the last year alone, the CPSC added 199 deaths to the 2005 total, raising it to 666. The agency also estimates every year that the figures are much higher than reported. While the 2006 death estimates were not included in the report, the agency estimates 870 people actually died since many deaths are not properly reported.

Of the 555 deaths in 2006, 20 percent -- or 111 -- were children younger than 16. Fifty were younger than 12.

Aside from deaths, the CPSC estimates that the total number of ATV-related injuries in 2006 is 146,600, the highest total yet and up 10,000 from 2005.

While many of the totals are less than recent years, the figures are certain to surpass those numbers as death tolls trickle in, said Rachel Weintraub, Consumer Federation of America's director of product safety.

“This further documents that we have a major problem and shows how pervasive the problem is,” Weintraub said.

ATVs are one of the deadliest products under the CPSC's jurisdiction, agency spokesman Scott Wolfson said.

“Although the methodologies for gathering data on bikes and ATVs are different, those are two products that are among the deadliest,” Wolfson said.

The deadliest product of all? Stairs.

20 years

The agency has been working on proposed rules to make ATVs safer for more than 20 years and although it reached a consent decree in the '80s to ban the sale of the exponentially deadlier three-wheel models, little progress has been made. In an interview last month, agency spokeswoman Julie Vallese said the agency hopes to make some progress on the proposed rules this summer. Currently the agency cannot act on any new regulations because it does not have a quorum of three commissioners.

The proposed rules mostly solidify many of the current voluntary standards and Weintraub said those rules are not now keeping riders safe and will not do so in the future.

In August 2006, the CPSC denied a petition filed over six years ago by consumer and health groups demanding action on ATVs.

A statement from the Specialty Vehicle Institute of America (SVIA), the ATV industry's lobbying arm, places blame for the accidents on rider error.

“The vast majority of ATV-related accidents and fatalities involve behaviors that the ATV industry warns against in its rider education programs, in all its literature, and on vehicle labels,” according to an SVIA statement. “In fact, an analysis of ATV fatalities during 1997-2002 showed that 92 percent of the fatalities were associated with one or more of these warned against behaviors.”

But Weintraub said the industry response is inadequate.

“Unfortunately, instead of working to keep children off adult-size ATVs and creating meaningful standards to decrease ATV hazards, the ATV industry has been prioritizing the protection of their economic interest and seeking to shift the blame from their vehicles to the riders.”

Wolfson said many ATV-related deaths and injuries could be avoided if riders follow these rules:

• keep the vehicle off paved roads;
• avoid tandem rides;
• wear a helmet;
• do not drive under the influence of dugs or alcohol; and
• children must not operate adult-sized ATVs.

“Parents control the key: from purchase, to training, to operation,” according to the SVIA statement. “Youth under the age of 16 must not operate adult-sized ATVs and parents need to fulfill their responsibility as guardians of their children by purchasing the right ATV for them, by not allowing their children to operate adult-sized ATVs, by taking advantage of the free rider training courses made available by the member companies of the SVIA, and by supervising their children at all times.”

The American Association of Pediatrics suggests that no children under 16 ride ATVs regardless of the model.

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