Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Hired By Lazer Helmets, In c., as Assistant Sales Man ager, Ch ris Crowell , 35, former ly in the sales department for Kerker Engi neeri ng. Awarded To Harley-Davidsons 's York Divis ion, a $19.5 million contract for productio n of 110,000 p ractice bomb casi ngs for use by th e U.S. Nav y and Air For ce; agreement is in add itio n to a 38 mi llion prac tice bomb co nt ract th a t Harley is currentl y fulfillin g. Correction T he phon e number for Harrah 's Auto Collection (Cycle News, April 10), 702/7863232; Harrah 's will be auc tioning off severa l rare and vintage motorcycles September 27-28. CPSC ATV Task Force Chairman Nick Marchica: CPSC doesn't have the facts on ATVs By John Ulrich BU ENA PARK, CA, AP R . 26 T he Chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Comrnission's All-Terrain Vehicle Task Force contradicted Commissioner Stuart Statler in telling ATV manufact urers th a t th e agency does not have accura te data o n risks of injury associa ted wi th ATV us e. Sp eakin g a t a voluntary sta nda rds development meetin g with members o f th e S pecia lty Veh icl e Institute o f Am er ica (SVIA), Ni ck Marchica o f the CPSC sa id, " If I had a ll th e a nswers, why a re we doing the in vestigation? I ca n' t g ive yo u a hard-line risk . Where we fall down is whe n we go to exposure. If th e five-yea r-old is riding it 10 hours a day a nd th e 30year-old is using it o ne hour a da y, it mak es a differen ce. I ca n' t give yo u th e ha rd numbers o n ri sk. We reall y don 't have a ll th e facts. That's why we recommended the H azard An a lysis to th e Co m m issio n. " Mar chica's statem ents co nt rad icted repe at ed p ronouncem ents by Commi ssioner Stua rt Statler, wh o ha s ca m paigne d for a n- im med ia te ban a nd recall o f ATVs and has descr ibed them as being th e most dangerous devices o n ea rt h. Sta tler has told th e press that th e CPSC alrea dy has eno ug h evidence to damn ATVs. " T here's a lot o f informa tio n ga thering we have to do. " Marchica sai d. As he ex plaine d it, th e CPSC wi ll conduct a three-month in vesti ga tion of statistica lly-va lid inj ury incidents reported fro m 66 hospitals a nd five burn centers th roughout th e co untry. Those medi cal centers, co nt rac ted by the CPSC, report AT v -relat ed inj u ries; th o se reports form th e basis for the CPSC's national injury estima tes. The th ree-m onth period is expected to p roduce abo u t 300 total injury in cid ent reports. Of th o se, 100 will be selec ted for o n-si te in vestiga tion by CPSC sta ffers. " We will mak e th ose 100 on-site investigations to determine casualty," Mar chica sa id. " We' ll take a picture, try to see wh at 's going on, th e circumstances, why they 're tipping over, why th ey're rolling over. It may well be that there ar e certain things in that first 300 going on th at will help a n ed uca tio n effort. "T h is is th e correct wa y to do it, rather th an take happenstance in vestigations," March ica sai d, referring to the data on ATV injuries already collected by the agency on a not- sta tistica lly-valid basis. That materia l ha s been the basis for Statler's repeat ed a ttacks o n ATVs a nd ATV ma n ufacturers, and whe n investigated by Cycle News, was fo un d to include ' accidents that did not invo lve ATVs and other inciden ts that clearly were nOI th e vehicle's fault. Beyond the in cid ent inv esti gat ions, Mar chica said that the CPSC wil l " . .. loo k a t the veh icles on the market. We're goi ng to ride th e vehicles, see wh at 's go ing on with existi ng vehi cles o n th e market and see if pe rha ps a ny th ing can be done to make th e vehicles safer. We're reall y tryin g to hone in o n wha t's happening. " March ica sa id that th e 300 or so in cident reports ga thered o ver th e three-m onth tim e fram e o f th e investigation would " define th e pi e we're dealing with. When we defin e th e pi e, theremay be a segment that's just ridiculous. That includes the guy who trips over it in his garage." As an illustration, Marchica and CPSC engineer Roy Deppa gave the exa m p le of an incident wh ere a man who cut his hand whi le sharpening a lawn mower blad e was included in reports about power lawn mower injuries. Deppa said " We ma y have a case wh ere th ey were run over by a tractor trailer , a nd we won 't want to go out and see where he was run over. It goes into the statisticall y-valid numbers but isn 't in vesti gat ed furth er. I expect to find a lot of th ese th a t a ren' t worth investigat ing. We find a lot th at a re reall y tr ivial. Yet it is an incident." Despite evidence th at he's basing h is co ncl usions that ATVs are inherently da ngerous on in concl usive a nd in complete infor ma tio n, Sta tler contin ues to ag ita te for a ban and recall o f AT Vs a nd freq ue ntly sho ws u p in th e general med ia bei ng quot ed as sayi ng so. RISK By John Ulrich $35.000.000 worth of government trouble I figure it 's the duty of an American citizen to be informed about what the U.S. government IS up to , especially when an ag ency of the government decides . that something I like to do is too dangerous for m y own good. The agency involved in this case is th e ·U .S. Consumer Product Safet y Commi ssion. and they've decided that riding ATVs is way too dangerous a nd , accordi ng to a CPSC sta ffer, th ey're a lso interested in motorcycles not licensed and registered for st reet use, which means dirt bikes a nd forsa le racebikes. T he CPSC figu res it's goi ng to spend $500,000 o f taxpayers ' mo ney on "s o lving" probl ems wi th ATVrela ted inj uries this year. an d whe n they're done with th at, there's no tell ing how much they'll spe nd " fixing" motorcycles o r maybe ba nning them a ltogether. So wha t I've do ne , as a good America n citizen a nd a ded ica ted beli ever in dem ocracy - or govern me nt by the people - is to request a ll sorts o f documents a nd informat ion from th e CPCS, which , acco rd ing to th e Freedom of Information Act, has to send me wh atever I want th at doe sn 't co m promise National Secu rity. One o f the most interesting docu ments I'v e received that wa y is the 117-page U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission 1985 Budget Request, nicel y organized and bound at what I'm sure is substantial expense. You ca n get your own copy, free , by demanding one in writing, citing the Freedom of Information Act. Who knows; maybe if enough people de mand th eir copy, the CPSC will spe nd all its money and staff time fulfilling Freedom of Information Act requests , which sounds oka y to me. The address to write to is Office of the Secretar y, Consumer Product Safety Commission, IIII 18th St., Washington, DC 20207. T he budget request is very en ligh ten ing. T he CPSC pl ans to spe nd $35,000,000 in Fiscal Year 1985, in a variet y of wa ys. The agency estimates th at 33,000,000 people ar e injured a nd 28,000 killed every year in acci dents rela ted to co nsu mer products, An estima ted 600 peo p le d ie every yea r from electrocutio n related to p roducts; 5000 die every year in residen tia l fires; 290 suffoca te using gas heat ers; 150die usin g por table electri c heat ers; 100 die every year using riding lawn mowers . In 1981, 87.000 ch ild ren were hurt by nursery eq ui pment such as cribs, stro lle rs, bab y ga tes; 1084 kids died betw een 1973- _ 1981 in nursery eq uip me nt accide n ts. In 1983, the CPSC esti ma tes th at 16,180 babi es required emergencyroom treatment due to bab y-walker cra sh es; the CPSC estima tes that there were 556,655 bicycle inj uries treated in hospital em ergency rooms in 1984, sligh ty fewerthan 1983's 571,165. And 105 people died in bicycle crashes in 1983, a ll under age l-t,The most recent year th e CPSC has data .for prior to 1983 is 1975, when 520,245 people were h urt o n bicycles a nd 363 ki lled, 105 o f those kids under age 14. And th e CPSC has a " Hazard Pro gra m " fo r every p roblem , from th e $63 7,000 Children 's/R ecr eati onal P roducts Progr am to th e $3,097,000 Che mica l Pr ogram. Other p rogram s include Emergi ng H azard s (tha t' s us. fol ks) at S1,873,000; Fire/Thermal Burns a t $2 ,046,000; El ectrical a t 1,001 ,000 ; P ower Equipment at S1,192.000 a nd H ouseh old Structura l .Prod ucts at 497.000. Under " O n-Go ing Activities," th e CPSC pl ans on spending $ 15,799,000 in Fiscal Year 1985 , in cluding $3,356,000 on Hazard Identification a nd Anal ysis; $837,000 on Engineering and Sciences; $2,111,000 on Information and Education; $2,637,000 on Compliance and Enforcement; and $6,858,000 o n Fie ld Act ivities, which I guess is field trips for Stuart " Ba n 'em " Statler, the Commissioner who is already advoca ting a recall and ban of ATVs. Some of the products th at th e 1985 Budget Request indicates the CPSC is looking into include crib hardware, brush CUllers, coa l a nd woodburning heating eq uip ment, haircu rling ap p liances, ceiling fans, home exe rcise a nd weight-lifting equip- , rnent, hair dr yers (" . .. 30 deaths per year . . . mainly inv olving ch ild ren" says the budget material ), components of home wi ri ng systems (" . . . appro xi m ate ly 500 d ea th s .. , each year. "), 'su m p pu mps ("Eleven electrocu tions each year .. ." ). 'ra nges and ovens (" . . . 70,000 fires. 4500 In. j uries a nd 160 dea ths each year. " ), portabl e kit ch en a p p lia nces (" . . . toaster ove ns, broil ers, po pcorn poppers, crock pots and ho t plates are associa ted wi th more than 7000 a ttended fir es, 400 injuries a nd 60 fatalities a n n ua lly.") . a nd portabl e electric heaters (" . .. 150 deaths, 700 injuries . .." in 1981 ). Digging through all thi s, two things im media tely come to mind. First, modern-day life, with or without fun , is damn dangerous. I mean, we're talking about 160 people dying every year in accidents related to ranges and ovens. more than three times the number related to ATVs, and ranges and ovens aren't even fu n to ride. And about 1,500,000 children disappear from their homes every year, according to th e government. The second thing is th at the CPSC, and especially Stuart " Ba n 'em" Statler, doesn't realize what they 're dealing with here. Statler, in statements made a t the CPSC's first hearing on ATV safety , held in October of last year, lectured representatives of the Specialty'Vehicle Institute of America (SVIA) a nd th e indiv idua l manufacturers (H onda , Kawasaki, Suzuki a nd Yamaha ) on what a good exampl e the chain-saw industry set in working with the CPSC to ch ange th e design o f cha in sa ws to incl ud e a nt i-kick-back features. As Statler saw it. th e people who use chai n saws are th e same type of active, outdoorsorien ted peopl e as use ATVs. Accordin g to Statler , by not immediately working to change th e ba sic design of th e ATV to so lve what he sees as inherent faults, th e ind us try is ri sking gov ernment intervention, a ban, a recal l. T he ca tch is that people who ride ATVs and motorcycles don 't feel the same about their machines as th ey (or o thers) feel about ch ain saws, sump pumps a nd crock pots, It 's one thing to change the design of a chain sa w to reduce the cha nces of th e saw kicking back and injuring its operator. It 's an other th ing to enclose ATVs in padded roll cages and limit top spe ed to 10 mph in th e name of saf ety. No chain sa w user is lik ely to o bject to a sa fer saw . Ditto for th e users of hair dryers a nd curling irons. But Sta tler 's rem arks as seen in CPSC documents indicate a basic ignorance abo u t sport vehicles in general and ATVs in particular , a nd for th e first tim e in its existence th e CPSC is lik el y to enco u nter a gr ound swell of co ns umer - that 's ATV ri ders and owne rs reacti on to a nd rejection o f its efforts to either turn the ATV (and pe rha ps the motorcycle af ter that ) into something it isn 't or else eli mina te it (and th e motorcycle) altogeth er. Statler and Co. don 't haveaclue as to wh y people ride ATVs and motorcycles. or wh y ATVs a nd motorcycles even exi st. And I'll bet they've never received a bag of letters from haircurler users protesting CPSC regulations and design standards for haircurlers. But I'll al so bet that th e CPSC's ill -advised, ill-informed attack on ATVs and their interest in off-road motorcycles brings them a flood of mail inviting the federal government to let enthusiasts ride the vehicles o f th eir choice. The CPSC may not know what to do when the letters come in , If they're smart, they 'Il go back to dealing with ranges and ovens, and leave the riding to us, 3

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