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Mr . TERRENCE SCANLON . Well , I think within a few months we will be able to address the age question . Also , I think in very short order we will be able to address our recommendations on labeling .

Mr . BARNARD . Well , I wanted to really go into some depth about your opinions as to the modification to improve handling character istics , modifications to reduce safety hazards , but I guess I can ' t even ask those questions because you don ' t know anything about it . Am I wrong there ?

Mr . MARCHICA . If I may , Mr . Chairman , what we are trying to do , what we have laid out in our plan is to evaluate existing all terrain vehicles by the end of this fiscal year . That will give us some idea about looking at modifications .

But we need to find out what is going on with existing vehicles first before we can get into discussions about changes .

Mr . BARNARD . Well , I can agree that I don ' t think you ought to go off haphazard and make decisions based upon either erroneous fact or lack of facts . I don ' t have any problems along with that . I guess my problem is that how serious does a matter have to be before it gets on the front burner ? And I haven ' t yet had anybody explain to me what decisions you have made on other things that are more important than this based upon the rate of deaths and accidents . And I just ask Mr . Statler that because he is the one that expressed his anxiety more than anyone else .

Mr . STATLER . To give you an idea , we have just finished a volun tary standard activity on chain saws which worked out very well , not with a recalcitrant industry , but a cooperative one .

Mr . BARNARD . Chain saws .

Mr . STATLER . There are 20 , 000 kickback injuries a year from chain saws , 120 , 000 serious injuries or hospital emergency room treated injuries from chain saws .

Mr . BARNARD . How many deaths ? Mr . STATLER . About 50 to 75 deaths a year . Mr . BARNARD . Any children using those chain saws ?

Mr . STATLER . Very rarely . Fortunately , parents have the good sense and the industry has the good sense not to market it for chil dren .

[ Additional response to this question follows : ]