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The reason ATVs are so unique is that they present us with a bewilder ing array of variables that affect their safety . Their growing popularity , for instance , has put ATVs into the hands of children and adults , novices and pros , reckless and prudent people alike . They are driven over the most wide variety of terrain . They come in a broad range of sizes and engines . Each of these factors - - human behavior , terrain , and vehicle charac teristics - - combine to influence the safety of ATVs . We need to understand how these variables interact before we can determine what is really causing ATV accidents . That is what CPSC has begin to do .
As you know , Mr . Chairman , the first ATV was built some 10 years ago , but it has only been in the past two or three years that ATV use has reached the levels we see today . During that time , the number of injuries and deaths associated with ATVs also climbed . The CPSC ' s National Elec
tronic Injury Surveillance System ( NEISS ) statistics alerted the Commission
not only to an increased number of ATV - associated incidents , but also to an
increasing rate of injury .
In addition , the agency received information about ATV - related deaths from a wide nmber of sources : coroners , medical examiners , news clippings , consumers , and from our own staff investigations . Sometimes that
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information was slow in coming .
Sometimes we are notified of deaths months
after they occurred . It took a year or more before we saw the kind of pattern that alerted us to a potential hazard to the public from ATVS . Then that pattern became clear , the Commission acted .
On April 3 of this year , the Commission voted unanimously to set up the machinery by which this agency will be able to do whatever it takes to