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Ves sir

Mr . ABRAMS . No , sir . At my school we don ' t even have a driver ' s education program .

Mr . ERDREICH . All right . Mr . BARNARD . I am not going to ask him where he is from . Mr . ERDREICH . Thank you very much , Mr . Chairman . Mr . BARNARD . Mr . Bustamante ? Mr . BUSTAMANTE . Thank you , Mr . Chairman .

Mr . Abrams , you stated in your testimony that you saw a picture of the ATV with the front wheel up ?

Mr . ABRAMS . Yes , sir .

Mr . BUSTAMANTE . What was the experience with your vehicle when your wheels were up ? Or did they ever come up on you ?

Mr . ABRAMS . That is one good point about the Honda 200 , it has an extremely heavy front end . Only on a hill , the one hill , was the only time it ever came up with me .

Mr . BUSTAMANTE . What happened then ? Mr . ABRAMS . That was the time my back was broken . Mr . BUSTAMANTE . It came back on you ?

Mr . ABRAMS . However , my brother ' s model , the 110 , had an ex tremely light frame and it did tend to come up in the air . No acci dent was because of this , though .

Mr . BUSTAMANTE . Mr . Chairman , the reason I was asking this is because we own a small vehicle , three - wheel vehicle , and it comes up and falls on you . We have a small ranch outside of San Antonio , and this is one of the things that I have always been afraid of . And I think that all of those who have testified here today , including those that have made remarks - one of our colleagues was question ing whether we should be involved in this issue . The thing that we should be addressing is whether these vehicles are safe or are they unsafe including the design and the handling characteristics .

Some of the young men in the back that are wearing the shirts , obviously they might have some experience in handling these vehi cles . They might have had a lot of experience in handling these ve hicles .

Mr . BARNARD . I drive a car , but I am not going to race at the Indianapolis Speedway .

Mr . BUSTAMANTE . That is right . The thing is that most of these vehicles are operated on private property . Nobody is going to pro hibit my children from driving an ATV on our 88 - acre farm wheth er they operate it safely or not . Nobody can monitor their activi ties , sometimes even those of us that are responsible for them .

So , I would like to see us investigate whether the design is proper , whether the handling characteristics are safe , whether the problem of the front suspension merits our further concern . Be cause from what I have heard from the testimony , these are some of the questions we should be studying .

Mr . BARNARD . I agree with you , and that is exactly what we , at the end of the hearing today and any continued hearings , that is what we are really going to get into , in our own way , is whether or not the Consumer Product Safety Commission has gone far enough ; and if not , how much further they are going to go .

Mr . Craig , do you have any further questions ? Mr . CRAIG . Two brief ones , Mr . Chairman .