Off-Road Vehicles Face More Oversight

After Years of Deaths and Severe Injuries, Feds Implement Mandatory Rules Governing ROVs

(CBS/AP)  After scores of deaths, the federal government is taking a closer look at off-road recreational vehicles, known as ROVs.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted Wednesday to write mandatory rules to regulate the four-wheel vehicles, following more than 100 deaths since 2003. Riders have suffered dozens of injuries, too - some leading to amputations.

ROVs, also called side-by-sides, are two-passenger motorized vehicles designed for drivers 16 years and older. They resemble a cross between a rugged-looking golf cart and a miniature-Jeep, and have a roll cage - metal bars framing the cab.

The industry proposed voluntary regulations for side-by-sides, but CPSC staffers said they fell short. Agency staff have expressed concern about the vehicles and rollover risks.

The commission will solicit comments from industry, consumer advocates and others as it writes the rules. This is the beginning of a process that could take many months, even years.

ROVs first appeared on the market in the late 1990s. Since 2003, CPSC says 116 people have died, including young children, and more than 150 have been injured. Injuries have involved crushing fractures to legs, feet and arms and some riders have lost limbs.

Safety advocates say the commission's vote puts the industry on notice.

"This is an instance where the industry has not been responding quickly and effectively enough to the well-documented hazards caused by these products," said Rachel Weintraub, director of product safety and senior counsel for the Consumer Federation of America.

ROV makers, however, insist the vehicles are safe.

"We know the vehicles are safe when used responsibly," the Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association said in a statement. "We must emphasize the importance of consumers making the right choices when driving an ROV."

Former agency chief, Nancy Nord, first directed the CPSC staff to investigate the vehicles and deaths a year ago.

In March, Yamaha Motor Corp. USA recalled more than 100,000 of its Rhino off-highway recreational vehicles for repairs after two models were linked to 46 deaths in the past six years. In many cases, riders were not wearing seat belts, the commission said. And in a number of incidents, rollovers happened on level ground at relatively slow speeds, the agency said.

A CBS News report in August cited documents showing Yamaha executives were aware of the safety issues more than a year before their ROV - the Rhino - was introduced.

A Rhino carrying top Yamaha executives rolled over at a testing ground in Kentucky 15 months prior to the line's debut, reported CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian.

The vehicles can reach top speeds of more than 35 miles an hour. Industry officials declined to say how fast they can go, but several dealers put top speeds at about 40 to 50 miles an hour. Yamaha did not immediately return calls about top speeds for its ROVs.

Currently, there are mandatory restrictions for ATVs, such as speed limits for youth models. But there are no standards, voluntary or otherwise, for the side-by-sides, which have the roll cage and a different steering system.

About 140,000 ROVs were sold last year in the United States.

[stuart-johns2]

by mrs_nuetron October 21, 2009 1:44 PM EDT

Its none of the governments business! Let us drive our vehicles, we are insured.
--------------------

Right now you may be insured. But soon the insurance company will be denying you coverage for risky behavior or hiking the rate so high that you won't want to riak getting up in the morning.

And anyway let me understand you. So because you have insurance you feel you have the right to put your children at risk of harm? So them getting hurt does'nt worry you? Not having insurance worries you though?

[mecanik-2009]

This is all we need the stupid government getting into the Dune buggy safety business. Next thing you know, they will redesign it into something nobody wants and run the buggy business into the dirt.

[stuart-johns2]

I KNEW some stupid person would make that stupid comment. I just KNEW it! Geeeesh.

Before you go bashing our so-called "stupid" government, think. It's stupid parents like those who allow their kids to ride these machines without safety training and safety gear that are causing the deaths of these children (most deaths are children, pre teens and teens). And when the governement HAS to step in and save these kids the parents are the first ones to complain their rights are being violated!!

What right is being violated? The right you think you have to kill your kids???

How freaking pathetically stupid. Just like cell phone use. The government HAS BEEN FORCED to be involved because some people are too stupid to realize that it's dangerous to text and drive.

Give us a freakin' break!

[bubbadubba]

<<<But, what if you kill me?>>>

What? You run along side 4 X 4's in the woods so if they turn over they will fall on you?
LOL

[bubbadubba]

Well that's the end of that.
The government loves to ruin everything people enjoy doing.
A few people are total idiots, get killed, and then no one can have fun.
But I notice our government has no problem with 4,500 American men and women killed in Iraq and a hundreds killed in Afghanistan.
Yea, that's just fine with our government because they CAUSED IT and refust to admit it was a mistake.
And what about cell phones? Cell phones now cause more accidents than drunk driving and yet our government does nothing about driving and talking because they all do it too.
Typical fertilizer from our government.

[thesevenveils]

Go back to waving the stars and bars in your deep woods holler.

The inaction of Yamaha to solve the problem at the beginning is akin to terrorism. The company knows it is causing unnecessary injury and death and yet does nothing but to perpetuate it.

[alien_view]

We protect idiots from themselves by locking them into a 4x4 box with holes in it. the problem with that is they as idiots would be sticking things into the holes and getting them stuck or broken off. we just can't protect idiots from themselves. TAKE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOU ACTIONS. If you drive off a cliff, it's not the cliff's fault for being there, it's yours for being STUPID!!!!

[stuart-johns2]

Amen and a-freaking-men!

[wyodutch]

My God... Here we go again... the U.S. government... an organization that can't even keep track of the $700,000,000,000 it "loaned" to the banksters... now wants to make our lives a bit more regulated.
.
Please.. leave me alone to enjoy and use my ATV's, my chainsaws, my snow-cat... my life.

[afisone]

Let's see if I understand this. 46 killed in 6 years. 250,000 + killed in 6 years in automobile wrecks and we have all kinds of regs.
Maybe we just need to hold people responsibile for reading and following the ROV driving directions. Don't drive like a fool and live longer. Pretty simple huh.

[stuart-johns2]

You would think, huh? I can't believe these idiots don't see that their irresponsibility is FORCING the government to be involved. If they acted like the responsible people they should be the government never would blink an eye.

HEY! All you anti-government militia minded mental misfits. Find an island and take your ignorant and stupid butts there to live. End of problem. The rest of Americans will be safer without you here and we'll have less governmental regulation. And take the insurance industry with you. You'll need them to make you think you can get healthcare when you hurt your dumb freakin' selves.

[mrs_nuetron]

Its none of the governments business! Let us drive our vehicles, we are insured.

[docpeter1953]

Finally I can agree with Mrs. Neutered about something.

If I want to drive one of these vehicle off-road and drive it recklessly and kill myself then that is my right. This is America.

[Ms_enza]

But, what if you kill me?