My name is Philip R . Fine . I am a full Professor in the Department of Rehabil itation Medicine , in the School of Medicine , University of Alabama at Birmingham . Also , I am Co - Director of the federally sponsored Spinal Cord Injury Care System at UAB , Co - Director of the federally sponsored National Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center and Director of Research for one of only

two federally sponsored Medical Rehabilitation Research and Training Centers in

Spinal Cord Dysfunction , in the country . It has been my privilege to have been

affiliated with the University of Alabama at Birmingham for over ten years .

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Under the direction of our Professor and Chairman , Dr . Samuel L . Stover , my colleagues and I have authored or co - authored over 135 published scientific articles , and our research team has received approximately 13 million dollars in grant awards for rehabilitation research during the past decade . Since affiliating with UAB , I have devoted the bulk of my professional energies to accident and trauma epidemiology with special emphasis on spinal cord injury which is the primary focus of our rehabilitation research efforts at UAB . The facility with which I am most closely associated at UAB is the inter nationally known Spain Rehabilitation Center , a 78 bed free standing compre

hensive rehabilitation hospital which is one of the University of Alabama

Hospitals at the Medical Center in Birmingham .

Because of our extensive experience in the acute care , treatment , rehabili tation , long - term management and prevention of spinal cord injuries , my colleagues and I became alarmed , some months ago , when we realized we were seeing a disproportionate number of spinal cord injuries resulting from three wheeler or ATV crashes . Our index of suspicion regarding the disproportionate health and safety risks associated with operation of ATVs was so great that one

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