Although these vehicles are marketed for off - road use , " as I think you mentioned , Dr . Fine , 63 percent of the incidences oc curred on designated roadways . Vehicles were most frequently moving straight at a constant speed , 57 percent , rather than chang ing speed or direction prior to the event . The most frequent con tributing factor cited by police was alcohol , 20 . 3 percent .

It sounds like the drunk driving problem that we have across this society today . I think my State of Idaho last year , 80 percent of the deaths and / or major injuries on our highways were directly re lated to alcohol . Speeding , 16 . 2 percent ; driver inexperience , 12 . 6 percent ; driver inattentiveness , 11 percent . Only 9 . 1 percent of the drivers wore helmets at the time of the incident . Although all ATV models were designed for use for a single rider , " and it says specifi cally on them and I know your frustration because it is mine but you print it , you state it ; and yet , somehow 29 . 1 percent of the incidents in the State of Alaska where there is a phenomenally high occurrence of incidents probably due to the out - country life style that we experience with Alaskans , were reported by police to involve multiple riders . Potential risk factors for injuries associat ed with ATV ' s included alcohol use , failure to use helmets , rider inexperience and inattentiveness and excessive speed .

Those were the basic conclusions that came out of those statistics that you quoted , Dr . Fine . And I think they are valuable to incor porate in the text or the context of what you were saying .

Dr . FINE . I certainly appreciate you including those . We also , as you indicated , alluded to the existence of this study and of these data . It is interesting that we apparently have read precisely the same data , precisely the same study , and come to different conclu sions .

Mr . CRAIG . That is possible . - Dr . FINE . So I suppose , perhaps , we can agree to disagree .

same token , I would like to point out that with all of the various phenomena that are out there , all of the things that can get you , and all of the things that CDC has to write about , if it were not perceived that this is a very serious problem , in my opin ion , it would not have warranted space . It was worthy of inclusion in MMWR , a rather prestigious and important U . S . Public Health Service publication .

By the same token , the allusion to the fact that only 20 percent of the deaths , or approximately 20 percent were alcohol related il ustrates to me , and I think it gets at the point that you were be ginning to make . It illustrates to me that the use or the misuse or abuse of alcohol in terms of these kinds of vehicular crashes is not nearly as great as it is in other kinds of motor vehicles , specifically motorcars .

Mr . CRAIG . But my point , Dr . Fine , and I think both you and Dr . Greensher are making that point , and it disturbs me when you can go through the data that is in large part supplied to you by CPSC is that not correct ?

Dr . FINE . They made me aware . By the same token , this Alaska study was known to me before they made - -

Mr . CRAIG . But I am not referring just to Alaska , I am referring · to all of the data that both of you have used , the statistics .

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