ROHVA Creates www.rohva.org/anpr to Facilitate Submission

IRVINE, Calif., — The Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association (ROHVA) is calling on enthusiasts and industry representatives to submit comments by March 15, 2010 in response to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) proposed mandatory standards for Recreational Off-Highway Vehicles (ROVs), also known as side-by-sides and UTVs.

ROHVA previously expressed disappointment with CPSC’s October 2009 vote to issue an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) for mandatory ROV standards. ROHVA believes this action is premature because an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) process to develop standards for ROVs had long been underway. Since that time, the process has been completed and the proposed ANSI standard is under final review. Components of the standard include protective gear requirements, a certified roll-over protective structure, a minimum of three point seatbelts for each seating position, and multiple lateral stability criteria.

ROHVA has created a web page – www.rohva.org/anpr - for enthusiasts and industry representatives that contains explanations of ROHVA’s position on ROV standards and links to important documents. The page also contains a link and other resources to facilitate stakeholders’ submission of comments on the CPSC’s ANPR.

“ROV stakeholders need to be heard on whether the appropriate next step to establish ROV standards is moving forward with CPSC-imposed mandatory federal standards or instead gaining experience under the ANSI standards and promoting the ROV Safety Rules available at www.rohva.org,” said Paul Vitrano, ROHVA executive vice president.

The ANSI standard development process involves a variety of interests including CPSC and other government representatives, industry, consumers and others. Participants reach a consensus on an appropriate ANSI standard for ROV equipment, configuration and performance requirements.

ROHVA has met several times with CPSC staff in an effort to address their concerns about the ANSI standard.

“ROHVA appreciates the Commissioners’ and CPSC staff’s interest in and willingness to discuss key technical issues, and our dialogue has been productive,” Vitrano said. “While there is agreement between CPSC and ROHVA on many aspects of ROV standards, there continues to be disagreement over some important technical issues, including vehicle stability, vehicle handling and occupant protection and retention.”

Vitrano concluded, “It also should be noted that the overwhelming majority of ROV operators and passengers use the vehicles safely and responsibly and benefit from the unique recreational and utility capabilities of these vehicles.”

The Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association is a national industry organization that promotes the safe and responsible use of ROVs. ROHVA is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop equipment, configuration and performance standards. Based in Irvine, Calif., the not-for-profit association is sponsored by Arctic Cat, BRP, Polaris and Yamaha. For more information visit www.rohva.org.

The popularity of the Rhino, and the fact that it represents a new category of off-road motorized vehicles, has made it a target for some plaintiffs’ lawyers who increasingly use the Internet, television advertisements and the news media to attract clients.  Nevertheless, in the past three months, more than 50 Rhino-related lawsuits against Yamaha have been dismissed either by the courts or by the plaintiffs.  Most recently, The Estate of Ellen Sand versus Yamaha Motor Corporation, LTD in Warren County, Ohio was withdrawn by the plaintiff’s own lawyers only days before the case was scheduled to go to trial, and in Alabama, the court granted Yamaha’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed the case in Robert Lamar Smith III versus Yamaha Motor Corporation, LTD.  These actions are not surprising considering Yamaha was victorious in the first Yamaha Rhino case tried in 2009 in Texas and in light of another court’s recent exclusion of plaintiff’s expert engineering and accident reconstruction witnesses in another matter.

Yamaha stands firmly behind the Rhino and will continue to vigorously defend the product.  The Rhino is a safe and useful off-road vehicle when driven responsibly and according to the instructions and warnings in our on-product labels, owner’s manuals, and other safety materials.

Yamaha is saddened whenever anyone is injured in a Yamaha product-related accident, and we urge all our customers to follow the safety recommendations on our products and, as importantly, to always operate the products in a safe and responsible manner.  Rhinos are designed for off-road use only, and the vehicle is only recommended for adult drivers aged 16 or older with a valid driver’s license.  Passengers must be large enough to keep their backs against the seat backs with both feet firmly on the floorboard.  Drivers and passengers should wear helmets and the vehicle’s three-point seat belts at all times.

Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association Statement Regarding Consumer Product Safety Commission Ballot Vote

The Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association (ROHVA) is disappointed that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced a ballot vote on the agency’s staff recommendation to proceed with a rulemaking process for recreational off-highway vehicles (ROVs) by publishing an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR).

ROHVA believes this action is premature as an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) development process for ROVs is currently underway. The ANSI standard development process requires involvement from a variety of interests. Participants involved in the process, from the US and Canada, include CPSC and other government representatives, industry, consumers and others and those participants will reach consensus on an appropriate ANSI standard for ROV equipment, configuration and performance requirements.

ROHVA has met and communicated with CPSC as part of the ANSI process. Following the first meeting in December 2008, ROHVA made several modifications to the standard based on CPSC’s comments at this initial meeting. Formal comments to the initial draft standard were due on July 13, 2009. CPSC submitted no comments prior to this deadline, then submitted a letter dated August 7, 2009, requesting new changes to the draft standard regarding stability, vehicle handling and occupant retention and protection. In response, ROHVA submitted a letter to CPSC dated August 14, 2009 requesting any data, research or analysis supporting the CPSC staff’s recommendations. To date, CPSC has yet to respond to ROHVA’s request and no additional information was provided to

ROHVA or in the CPSC staff briefing package. While awaiting a response from the CPSC to our request, ROHVA retained a nationally known independent expert on vehicle dynamics to evaluate the comments from CPSC staff in order to continue the ANSI process with the benefit of additional expertise. ROHVA expects to issue a revised draft standard, incorporating many participant suggestions, in the coming days.
We are confident that through continued discussion and information sharing, an appropriate standard that reflects the input from all parties can be developed through the ANSI process. We look forwarding to continuing to work with CPSC and other parties in these efforts.

The Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association is a national industry organization that promotes the safe and responsible use of ROVs. ROHVA is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to develop equipment, configuration and performance standards. Based in Irvine, Calif., the not-for-profit association is sponsored by Arctic Cat, BRP, Polaris and Yamaha. For more information visit www.rohva.org.

Yamaha is saddened whenever anyone is injured in a Yamaha product-related accident, and we urge all our customers to follow the safety recommendations on our products and, as importantly, to always operate the products in a safe and responsible manner.

The jury’s decision to reject the plaintiff’s claims and award no damages in this case is appropriate. The jury made a decision based on the facts. The testimony and evidence during the trial showed that this tragic accident had nothing to do with the design of the product. Yamaha’s top priority is and always has been the safety of our customers, and we pride ourselves on the safety and quality of our products.

This accident demonstrates the importance of following the safety guidelines posted on the vehicles and the owner’s manuals. Rhinos are designed for off-road use only, and the vehicle is only recommended for adult drivers aged 16 or older with a valid driver’s license. Passengers must be large enough to keep their backs against the seat backs with both feet firmly on the floorboard. Drivers and passengers should wear helmets and the vehicle’s three-point seat belts at all times.

Yamaha stands firmly behind the Rhino as a safe and useful off-road vehicle and will continue to vigorously defend the product. To learn more about the Yamaha Rhino, visit our website www.truthaboutrhino.com.

Over 150,000 Rhino owners have used the vehicles safely, including the U.S. military, border patrol, and a growing number of law enforcement agencies, fire fighters and other first responders. In fact, more than 99 percent of Rhino owners have operated their vehicles safely and responsibly over millions of hours of use. The Rhino has won virtually every “first in class” award and top safety ratings in independent reviews since its introduction.

The popularity of the Rhino, and the fact that it represents a new category of off-road motorized vehicles, has made it a target for some plaintiffs’ lawyers who increasingly use the Internet, television advertisements and the news media to attract clients. As the first trial dates approach in personal injury litigation in various courts, some law firms have embarked on a misleading publicity campaign to influence potential jurors and/or the outcomes of these cases, and to solicit potential clients. Yamaha will properly deal with these cases in the courtroom based on all the relevant evidence and a fair opportunity to be heard.

Unfortunately, these law firms successfully convinced CBS News to help further their disingenuous publicity campaign, and the network aired a story on the Rhino that included inaccurate, incomplete and false information.

To begin with, CBS featured an incident involving Justin Miller, but failed to mention that Mr. Miller was driving a heavily modified Rhino. As the photo of that Rhino posted on CBS’s own website reveals and the investigating officer testified — the Rhino Miller was driving had an extended cage structure, and what looks to be a back seat bolted to the rear cargo bed. The vehicle’s owner signed a waiver for his purchase of a “Custom Rhino” stating that the vehicle has “additional third party parts and accessories not offered by the manufacturer” and releasing all claims against the dealer and “all other persons and entities” related to the purchase of the vehicle.

The CBS story also shows security camera footage of an incident involving Zach Murray, a former employee at a Yamaha dealership who is currently a plaintiff with his own pending lawsuit. In a post-incident letter to his employer, Mr. Murray wrote that he intentionally stepped out of the overturning vehicle. Although CBS was made aware of Mr. Murray’s letter, they neglected to include mention of it in their story.

In addition, Mr. Murray was not wearing a seatbelt or a helmet. He was operating the vehicle on pavement then made a sharp, high-acceleration turn, and did not stay inside the vehicle.

A more complete version of the security camera tape shows two other vehicles being driven recklessly on the same stretch of pavement where the accident occurred, suggesting that an atmosphere of horseplay existed just prior to Murray’s crash, and that the only reason for Murray to be making a sharp, high acceleration turn was to also engage in horseplay.

In a separate part of the story, CBS cites documents that discuss an early pre-prototype vehicle that had a different design than, and no relation to, the Rhino that is on the market today. Despite being told weeks ago that it would be false to imply that these documents relate to the Rhino in any way, CBS chose to include this misleading information in its report.

Yamaha was contacted for the CBS segment two months ago by Myron Levin, a freelance reporter with a long history of writing news stories that favor the plaintiffs’ bar. Yamaha provided a great deal of information to Mr. Levin, including responding to more than 40 written questions. Mr. Levin also conducted an hour-long interview with a Yamaha representative at Yamaha’s offices in California. Yamaha did not agree to an on-air interview with the reporter, Armen Keteyian, because we could not be assured that such an interview would not be selectively edited and used in misleading ways with statements taken out-of-context given the obvious plaintiffs’ slant with which the CBS producers were developing their story.

Like the CPSC, Yamaha takes very seriously any reported Rhino-related accident, and Yamaha has fully cooperated in the agency’s investigation of the Rhino and its request for modifications. Yamaha will continue to work to promote safe and responsible use of the vehicles, including the active, ongoing development of standards for all recreational off-road side-by-side vehicles, including the Rhino.

Yamaha stands firmly behind the Rhino and will continue to vigorously defend the product against baseless claims and distortions, whether they be from plaintiffs’ law firms or biased, inaccurate media reports parroting these lawyers’ claims. The Rhino is a safe and useful off-road vehicle when driven responsibly by licensed operators aged 16 or older and according to the instructions and warnings in our on-product labels, owner’s manuals, and other safety materials.

To bring such a vehicle to the market took years and years of development. Thousands of hours of testing and evaluation were conducted to ensure the safety of the Rhino before it was ever released.

Since the product was introduced in 2003 it has seen phenomenal growth with very few incidents. Yamaha is deeply saddened if anyone gets hurt using one of our motorsports products, but the reality is that the Rhino has a proven track record as a safe, reliable off-road vehicle. More than 99 percent of owners have enjoyed the Rhino without reported incidents.

Recently, however, a few people have questioned whether the Rhino is safe because of misinformation that has been widely disseminated by plaintiff attorneys. This misinformation, and the law suits for which the advertisements are meant to solicit and support, are based on a very small percentage of users who have had incidents — almost entirely through the misuse of the product (not wearing helmets or seatbelts, not following age or size recommendations, or even operating the vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs). Plaintiff attorneys have paid large sums of money in advertising on Web sites, on billboards, and on television targeting the Rhino and making outrageous claims. They have tried to taint its image, but they cannot argue with the facts.

This Web site is designed to provide you with the truth about Rhino. This is your best source for information that can help answer any questions you may have about the Rhino, the company, the recent Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announcement (this was not a recall) and current litigation. We also outline the safety recommendations that Yamaha provides to each customer in the owners’ manuals and on-product warning labels.

Yamaha stands firmly behind the Rhino as a safe, reliable off-road vehicle, and we know that there are thousands of responsible riders across the country that use the Rhino every day safely and as intended. The inappropriate attacks by profit-seeking attorneys will damage the entire industry if we don’t stand up together. We thank our customers and fans for their support and welcome your feedback.

If you’re looking to purchase a Rhino and/or need more specific product information, please check out www.yamahaoutdoors.com.

*Please note: All images and/or video of the Rhino SxS vehicle featured on this site were taken prior to the March 31, 2009, voluntary repair program announcement.