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PROTECT KIDS AND THE LAND FROM ALL TERRAIN VEHICLES
Damage to the land from the unmanaged use of all-terrain vehicles, better known as ATVs or four wheelers, is well known and well documented. These vehicles threaten the integrity of wild lands, pollute the air and water, and harm wildlife. Less well known is the danger they pose to those who ride them, especially young people.

ATVs kill and injure a growing number of Americans, including a disproportionate number of children under the age of 16, every year. Almost all these children-95 percent-are hurt while riding large ATVs that the industry maintains are sold only for adults. The problem has steadily worsened while the ATV industry has been left to take a voluntary approach to safety. We need your help to improve ATV safety and to make the industry, those who make ATVs and those who sell them, accountable for that safety.

Please contact the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) today to urge it to issue a regulation to prohibit the sale of adult-size ATVs for use by children under age 16.

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U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Washington, D.C. 20207-0001

Street address
4330 East-West Highway
Bethesda, Maryland 20814-4408
Tel. (301) 504-0990
Fax (301) 504-0124 and (301) 504-0025
E-mail: info@cpsc.gov

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Office of the Secretary Consumer Product Safety Commission
Consumer Product Safety Commission
Washington, DC 20207

Subject: Petition CP-02-4/HP-02-1, Petition on ATVs

Dear Office of the Secretary Consumer Product Safety Commission:

The ATV standards currently in place are patently absurd. Children come in all different sizes and maturity levels, and are shoehorned by age into slots, and onto ATV's, that are not suitable for them.

Stop trying to protect us from ourselves! Parents can best determine what ATV their children should use. The CPSC DOES have a role--that's making sure that pipes have heat guards, and there are no unsafe sharp edges and design flaws. But size and age limitations are NOT appropriate territory for the CPSC. Yes, some children will be injured, because life includes the potential for accidents.

Actions like the ATV size limitations are slowly but surely eroding the ability of human beings to live full, enjoyable lives! The town I grew up in no longer allows ice-skating on the local pond, due to liability issues.

If the CPSC keeps up this kind of regulation, we'll all live very safe, very long, very BORING lives.

Sincerely,

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Hello,

We have forwarded your comments to the appropriate agency personnel for their review. If additional information is needed, a representative will be in contact with you. Please note that the CPSC's warning on ATV's warns that young people under the age of 16 should never operate an adult-size ATV (over 90cc engine size). We have attached a copy of the link to the warning for your information.

http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PREREL/PRHTML99/99034.html

Please note that the attached link to the CPSC news release states that companies are taking the following actions:

(1) implementing a new, multi-million dollar, multi-year information and education safety campaign emphasizing the risks created when children younger than 16 operate or ride on adult-size ATVs; (2) not marketing, selling or offering to sell adult-size ATVs to or for use by children younger than 16.

Please be advised that you may obtain CPSC publications, recalls and general safety related information via our web site at www.cpsc.gov. Click on the "Search" icon and type in your topic. You may also file an incident report via the web site mentioned above. If you have additional inquiries, you may call our toll-free hotline at 1-800-638-2772, Monday - Friday, 8:30am to 5:00pm, Eastern time. Press 1 to begin and then press 300 to speak with a representative.

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