Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

o ~ C'J ~ Q.) ..0 E Q.) ;;> o Z /,WE. 'RE HE.RE To DIScusS TilE ISS'uE Of AT" S"AF£TY To WORK I WITH THE. MMJVFAc.rURE:R~ .. To FIND A RAT"IDNAL (.06lCAl- SOLUnON To THI S' P~06LfM . IT'S ALL HERE IN MY NE.W BooK, " HELL oN WHEEL~~ t (9 ." I .. AVAILABLE AT THE lh>R oN '(ouR. WAY oUT. .. " CPSC 26 (Continued from page 22) gel es National Forest , where she works, also involved alcohol; Deaton testified that ATV-related injuri es involved misuse of the vehicles and lack of safety equipment, and that the Forest Service used ATVs without en countering problems. Hel en Bru ce Frankel , Kern County, California Coroner, told of two fatal acc ide nts involving ATVs in Kern County; in on e ca se, a woman on a 110 came up behind a kid on a 70 on a dirt road and ran o ver one of th e rear wh eel s of th e 70, ca us ing both ATVs to ro ll ; in a nother, a rider ca me upon a dune buggy head-on on a curve, tr ied to tum , an d slid sideways int o th e bu ggy; both ca ses. Frankel sai d, proved th e "in he re n t instabil it y" o f ATVs. Frankel o ffered n o enginee ring ana lysis to sup port her co ntention. a nd didn 't exp la in wh y open-wheeled race ca rs, in cluding sp ri nt cars a nd Indy ca rs, which often cras h wh en th ey ru n ove r th e wh eels of another car. a re not inherently unstable. Dr. Paul Edmonds o f th e Universit y of Uta h testified th at he wa s an expe rience d dirt bike rid er . wa s inv olved with th e Nat ional In st itute for Fa rm Safet y a nd th at acc ide nts in U ta h o ften involved kids without safety equipment; Ed mo nds advoca ted mandatory helmet law s a nd mandatory training for chi ldren, similar to hunter sa fety cla sses. During test im ony from this panel. Scanlon bri efly left th e room to be intervi ewed by local television crews in th e hallway. ''I'm somewhat d isa p poin ted that in th e midst of question in g this panel th e Ch airman decided to hold a press co n ference o u tside th is room ," an d ca lled th e ac tio n ironi c sin ce Sca n lo n had em p ha sized th e im po rtance o f listening to q uesti oning of witnesses; it was a referen ce to criticism Statler received af ter wa lkin g: o ut of ';i h earin g in "New Hampshire without listening to questioning of the last panel, made up o f deal ers. Statler repeated the criticism wh en Scanlon returned to th e room. and Scanlon quickl y pointed out that he was th e onl y Commissioner to a tte nd all five h earings, a nd th at if he wanted to take a IO-minute break , he would. Statler obj ected , saying , " T he p oint I was trying to make wa s . . ." and Scanlon cu t him off. saying, " I got yo u r point," and th e hearing room erupted in la ug h ter. Statler had m ore to say a bo u t ATVs th em selves. "T he performance cha rac teris tics o f th e vehicle itself are suspect here." he sai d . " O ur ro le as a federal agency is to look a t th e p ro duct it self. T o ride p ro perl y, to rid e a t cus tomary speed, you 've go t to ind uce in stability. A rid er must overweig h t one wh eel , in effect underweight o ne whee l. to break tra ction . T h is ca us es th e vehicle to be precario us ly bal anced o n two w heels. o ne fro nt and one rear : ' Sta tler p ressed in wi th h is defectiv emachine-as-a-cause-of-crashes theory , a nd went o n to say. " 1 have never heard a ny thi n g tha t h as been done to im p rove th e h an dling . the safety. th e sta bilitv of the vehicle. " Do any o f yo u kn ow o f a ny th ing th e manufacturers have done to improve th e safety, th e handlin g , th e perf ormance characteris tics o f th e veh icl e?" Sta tler a sked . Statler a lso honed in on Deaton 's test im ony. say ing th at h e co u ld n ' t beli eve her figures since man y ch ild ren were injured on ATVs; Sta tler went on a nd on a bo u t ho w unbelieva ble it wa s th at ch ildren wer e drinking befor e cras hes. a nd that Deato n 's fig u res co u ld n 't be rig h t; Statl er had co m p letel y mi ssed Deat on 's rema rk tha t 90% o f adults crash ing ATVs had been dr inking. " 1 quali fied th a t sta tement," Dea ton respo nd ed when Statler fin a lly sh ut up. "I sai d 90%of adults." Chauvet said that California ha d fo u nd tha t :15-45% of all acc ident s invol ving off- roa d veh icles .a lso invo lved a lcohol. Statler as ked Elkins if th e state of Ca lifo rnia was tr ying to infl uen ce th e manu facturers to p rod uce safer vehicles; Elki ns said no . Th e seco nd panel co ns isted of Cycle News Ed ito r j ohn Ulrich, acco m panied by ATV N ews Kid 's Page Edi tor H a yley U lrich (Hay ley was full y equipped in safe ty gear); Bill Termer. represerui n g Mo torcycl e In d ustry Magazin e Publish er Rick Ca m p bell ; Sharo n Bishop. Presiden t o f th e California All -T errain Veh icle Associa tion; ~Iil T horn to n of th e California O ff-R oad Veh icl e Assoc ia tio n ; and j on Cure o f th e Santa Barbara ATV Club. Through Stermer , Campbell asked Sta tle r to resign from th e CPSC; Campbell said Statler wa s obviously biased a nd that hi s cam paign of misinformation o n ATVs had serio usly damaged ATV dealers, aft ermarket accessory manufacturers a nd vehicle manufacturers. Bishop, Thornton and Cure advocated education and defended ATVs as basically sound. Ulrich attacked the CPSC's handling of the ATV safety issue, gave exa m p les of failure when another federal agency tried to get into vehicle design, and . advocated education programs. (For the text of Ulrich 's testimony. see page 30.) Statler an d Ulrich tangled in questioning after th e testimony. when Statler asked th e panelists what th e manufacturers had done to mak e ATVs safer. Ulrich said that "safety" had to be defined. because wh at wa s " sa fer" in one si tua tion was not in another; Ulrich used th e exa m p le of a n unsuspended, low- to- th e-ground 80cc being able to slide on flat ground with less chance of tipping when co m pa red to a full y-su spended 250cc ATV; but if the rider of th e 80cc tried to follow th e 250cc over straight-l in e bumps a t top spe ed. th e 80cc would soo n be travelling end-o ver-end. Statler interrupted Ulrich saying th at when he was talking safety. he was talking 324 peopl e dying on ATVs; Ulrich sh o u ted down Statler, waving a CPSC press kit and saying th at th e lat est CPSC printout on ATV-related deaths showed sever a l acci de nts in volving co lli sions with cars and a t least o ne with a train. so th at if Statler wanted to keep people from running ATVs into ca rs and trains, then no, ATVs co u ld n ' t be made safer. You have to choose wh at you want; yo u ca n ' t hav e it both wa ys. Ulri ch sa id . Statler th en as ked eac h member o f th e panel if they co u ld .endorse th e last part o f a recent Nat ional Motorcycle Retailer s Assn . (NMRA) reso lu tion ; Sta tler read on lv th e la st line o f the resolu tion. "... th is bod y stro ngly enco u ra ges a ll ATV m anufa cturers to wo rk will a ll deliberate spe ed to ma ke a ny a nd a ll a p propria te m odi fica tions for gr eat er AT V safety." (T he rest of the resolution reads .t'T he partici pa nts o f th e Mot orcycl e Dealers State Leaders Co n fere nce gi ve full support to.th e considerabl e efforts of the Specia lty Vehicle Institute o f Am erica. and enco ura ge a ll dealers to sup port th e public a wa rene ss, rider training a n d state legi slative efforts o f th e SVIA . We al so value and su pport th e efforts o f th e Am eri can Motorcycli st Assn. to initiat e legi slation for a more ra tio na l oversigh t ap p roach to th e federal regu latory proce ss. Furth er . we, a s state leader s. acc ep t th e responsibility to ed uca te a nd m otiva te deal ers within eac h sta te to become actively invol ved in Rider Safety Education . Fin all y, th is bod y strongly enco u rages a ll ATV ma n u fac tu rers to wo rk with a ll del ib era te spee d to ma ke a ny a nd a ll a ppropriate mod ificatio ns Iorgrea ter :\:I:V safety.") " All endorsed the-resol u tio n. except Ulri ch, who sa id he would endorse a sta tem ent substi tu ting "efforts" in . th e pl ace of " mod ifica tions ." Th e th ird p anel wa s m ade up o f AT V crashers, crashers lawyers. a nd crashe rs' survivors, Norman Bak er rented a n ATV nea r Pa lm Springs. hopped on a nd went rid ing u p a nd down a big sand dune. with o u t any ' p rotective eq u ip me n t. O n a desce nt. nea r th e bottom of the du ne, Baker to ld the Co mmissio ners " AII of a sudden, next thing I knew. th e bike flipped for ward. It jus t flipped forward." Bak er said he was qual ified to ride a n AT V beca use h e had driven fa st ca rs. H e sa id he su ffered a broken fifth vert eb ra a nd was paral yzed ; he recov er ed wtih out paral ysis. a n d cla ims hi s doctor told him that if he had been wearing a helmet. he would have broken hi s third vertebra and sto p ped breathing ; Baker offered no expe rt testimony to su p port his doctor 's cla im . and told th e CPSC that ATV s were unsafe. He's suing Honda. ' Attorney j ohn Moriarity said he represented a client whose fingers were crushed when he rolled an Odyssey and grabbed the roll cage on the wa y over instead of keeping his ha nds on the controls; Moriarity said he sued Honda claiming the Odyssey wa s defective because it did not come eq u ip ped with wrist restraints, and that th e case was sett led favorab ly for his cli ent out o f co u rt; h e also said he wa s n ow sui ng th e dealer who sold th e Odyssey and aft ermarket manufacturers of Od yssey roll cages, whomever the y ar e. William Shapiro. another attorney, sa id h is cli ent. Emery Horvitan, bought an ATV. took it to a beach in Mexico , hit a rock protruding seven in ch es from th e sand with on e rear wheel. crash ed and wa s injured. Shapiro is su in g Honda on the basis that th e ATV sh o u ld h ave been able to hit the rock a t the speed (u nspecified) that Horvi tan wa s travelling without .cra sh ing . Mu ch of his case is based on th e fact that he says is a public percep tio n of ATVs as being perfectly sa fe; he said hi s cli ent was n ever to ld th e applicable use of hi s ATV and what to avo id. " I can't understand why the safety commission a nd th e people let this happen," said Suzanne Frisbie when she described the death of her l4-yearold daughter on a rented ATV , without protective eq u ip ment , a t Pismo Beach . " I am one of the pe ople who would lik e to see ATVs banned and recalled in th e U n ited Stat es." Frisbie claimed h er daughter wa s riding at a rea sonable speed, a n d th at sh e was within 200 feet of he r daughter. who crashed for no good reason an d was ALWAYS WEAR HELMEr AND EYE l'l/.oTEc.noN, PRESERVE NATURE , ~TA Y ol'F PIJ8LI( HIbf.lWA Y~, AND GO fo R IT:'

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