Washington, DC—Today, at a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) decisional meeting about their 2019 Operating Plan, an amendment was offered to require the CPSC to expand its all-terrain vehicle (ATV) annual death and injury report to include recreational off-highway vehicles (ROVs). This amendment, offered by Commissioner Kaye, and supported by Commissioner Adler, was rejected by a 3-2 vote of the Commission.

“CFA strongly supports efforts by the CPSC to issue annual ROV death and injury data. We applaud Commissioner Kaye’s amendment to improve ROV safety data and we were profoundly disappointed that a data-driven agency would reject an effort to improve data on a product that has been gaining popularity and that has been subject to numerous recalls,” stated Rachel Weintraub, legislative director and general counsel with Consumer Federation of America.

“Due to the CPSC’s lack of data, CFA has been tracking real time death data for ROVs and other off-highway vehicles (OHVs), has released a blog on the increasing number of OHV recalls, and last January sent a letter to the CPSC urging the Agency to provide clear information to consumers about ROVs that are catching fire, as mentioned in a December 2017 joint statement from CPSC and Polaris regarding specific models of Polaris ROVs.”

CFA documented 118 ROV deaths in 2016, 130 in 2017, and thus far in 2018, 119 deaths. CFA data are likely an underestimate of actual fatalities and CFA consistently updates the data as more information is obtained.

“Vastly more information is needed about ROVs, rather than less. Today’s decision by the Commission is a roadblock for safety, data collection, and transparency,” concluded Weintraub.

Contact: Rachel Weintraub (202) 939-1012