Mr . BARNARD . Did you personally see to it that the mechanism or the screw , or whatever it was that geared it down to a nominal speed , did you personally see that that was activated ?

Mr . VANCE . No , sir . We were told at the dealership that it was adjusted at a low speed already . And I didn ' t want that morning - I was going to check on it later , but Christmas morning when we got up I didn ' t want to get into messing with the mechanical mecha nism of it .

Mr . BARNARD . Did you by any chance check to see if that was true ? Mr . VANCE . No , sir .

Mr . BARNARD . After the accident , you didn ' t by any chance have the - -

Mr . VANCE . No , sir . After the accident we were pretty tied up for about 30 days .

Mr . BARNARD . Do you think it is possible that adjustment was not made ?

Mr . VANCE . I think it is possible , but I don ' t know . I really don ' t know .

Mr . BARNARD . But you did not see the boys riding it at an exorbi tant rate of speed ?

Mr . VANCE . No , sir . As a matter of fact , for probably the first hour they rode it on Christmas morning it was right around the yard , going at a slow speed . And as the day went on we would let them go farther and farther away from the house , but several times we would see them on the roads , and they couldn ' t get it out of second gear . They claimed that they never did , but they were out of our sight at some times .

Mr . BARNARD . Just for my own curiosity , what happened to the vehicles after this accident ? Do you continue to let your other son continue to ride it ?

Mr . VANCE . No , sir . We got rid of the vehicles . They never got on them again . Mr . BARNARD . Mr . Kolter ? Mr . KOLTER . Thank you , Mr . Chairman .

I was just wondering in listening to the testimony of the people here before us this morning as to your real purpose for purchasing this equipment in the first place .

Mr . McKinley , did you buy it because of a sporting - event - type thing ?

Mr . McKINLEY . I was riding it for recreational purposes . Mr . KOLTER . More or less a sport ? Mr . McKINLEY . Yes .

Mr . KOLTER . How about young Mr . Abrams , you felt also that it was a sport - type thing ?

Mr . ABRAMS . At first , my father bought them for use on the farm , as well as recreation . But their primary use was on our farm for irrigation purposes .

Mr . KOLTER . For work ? Mr . ABRAMS . Yes , sir .

Mr . KOLTER . How about Mrs . Crisp , did your husband - evidently he was in that line of work . It sounds like he may have been a re pairman . Did he buy this because of the sporting event - type thing ?