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that the Commission ' s only official activity was a formal investiga tion of a complaint from the parents of a young boy in Louisiana who had been killed as the result of an alleged malfunction of a throttle on a three - wheel vehicle .

The Commission ' s conclusion from that investigation apparently was that there was no cause for action on its part .

Approximately 2 months before the McKinley trial began , we were contacted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission . By that time , the Commission apparently had been receiving com plaints of numerous accidents occurring with these vehicles and it apparently had decided to begin the investigation and hearings with which you are certainly familiar .

John McKinley ' s case went to trial in Akron , OH , in May 1984 . At the conclusion of a 3 - week trial , the jury found in favor of John and Terry McKinley . The jury agreed that this product , as de signed , was inherently dangerous . That jury rendered a verdict in favor of the McKinleys for $ 2 . 6 million . That case was settled after Honda ' s motion for new trial was overruled and while its appeal was pending .

Since the McKinley trial , I have been contacted by many lawyers in many States representing injured victims and by several parents of injured children . Since the McKinley trial , and maybe in some small way because of it , the media has become aware of this sad phenomenon that is occurring .

Both the McKinley case and the tragedies of other families have been the subject of numerous newspaper articles and some televi sion coverage .

On behalf of those who have already been damaged , as well as those who are still healthy but will certainly expose themselves to this serious risk of injury or death , I want to tell you that this is a most serious problem . You should not underestimate it . The prob lem has neither peaked nor crested . It is only beginning , and will increase in direct proportion to the popularity of these three wheeled vehicles .

I am not an engineer and I do not claim to have any particular expertise in the field of vehicle dynamics . As a lawyer who repre sented a family whose lives were permanently changed by the kind of accident with which you are concerned , I have come to a basic understanding as to why literally hundreds of men , women , and children have been seriously injured or killed while riding these in nocent - appearing vehicles .

Notwithstanding the claims and denials of the manufacturers , the fact is that these three - wheeled vehicles are simply more dan gerous than the ordinary person expects . Safe and successful oper ation , especially on unlevel terrain , requires proper shifting of the rider ' s weight forward or backward when going uphill or downhill , and requires side shifting of the rider ' s body and proper distribu tion of his weight when turning .

The manufacturers do and will claim that these are simple ma neuvers . Their euphemism to describe these required maneuvers is that these three - wheelers are rider - activated .

John McKinley and the dozens of other brain - damaged , para lyzed and deceased former riders of these products are stark evi