Having some fun with the National Product Safety Commission…

[Fungo Wizard]

You are the man! Keep after her, cause you have her dodging some questions she has no answer for. Maybe stirring their pot a little will get the ball rolling. How many emails can we get together to send this lady?

[atc350xer]

Great read and great writing skills Rodd... keep fighting the good fight!

[rbaral233]

oh my gosh! rodd this is amazing... best read to start my day man! we all need to email this chick. lets all type our emails, rodd can proof read and make em sound as good as his all we will bombard her inbox with tons of questions, evidence, and show her how many intelligent, safe, and noble trikers there are waiting and wanting some justice. has anyone else yet sent her an email or just rodd? it seems time for as tobey keith says " a little less talk, alot more action"

[ADOR]

Sweet.........very direct and non threatening. Just how a letter of this type needs to be.

[JasonB]

Damn I feel really dumb after reading such a well written email like that lol I needs moar better learnin skills

[Silverado]

I wonder if the fight is the same in Canada. I am a Scientist not a politician-law minded individual.

[oldskool83]

keep it up mang!

[xxllmm4]

Keep up the good work, and THANKS FOR YOUR EFFORTS!!

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Very impressive communication skills my friend! I may have missed something along the chain of letters, how the heck did they manage to unclude ALL manufacturers of trikes and not just the big 5 that agreed to cease importation? Seems like a heck of a bureaucratic leap to me......

[HuffieVA]

how the heck did they manage to unclude ALL manufacturers of trikes and not just the big 5 that agreed to cease importation? Seems like a heck of a bureaucratic leap to me......

It was hidden in the "Lead Free Toys Bill", but it is the bureaucratic equivalent of being grabbed by the short and curlys then being lead to the trough and forced to drink their kool aid…

[newrider3]

Her responses remind me of the movie Idiocracy.

"But...Brawndo's got electrolytes." "Yeah, but what are electrolytes?" "...they're what's in Brawndo..."

The CPSIA bill had quite a bit of extra stuff hidden in it that came back to bite a bunch of unrelated industries in the ass.

[ATCrider42]

Have you written your local congress man too asking him to take action against the CPSC? We should all write to our congressman asking him or her to force the CPSC's hand in this matter. This battle will be won with numbers! TO WAR! ...........sorry, i get excited about three wheelers sometimes.

[HuffieVA]

TO BE CONTINUED...

Recieved another response early today...

The CPSIA does not require the Commission to issue a standard for 3 wheel ATVs, but rather says that as long as there is no such standard 3 wheel ATVs may not be imported into or distributed in the U.S. As the Commission stated in the preamble to it’s NPR, the Commission does not believe that a standard for 3 wheel ATVs is feasible. Therefore, it is not working on developing one and the moratorium in the CPSIA applies.



Tanya Topka, Compliance Team Lead (Fast Track and Mechanical Hazards)
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
301-504-7594 Fax: 301-504-0359
Use our online form for reporting under Section 15: https://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/sec15.aspx
For Recall Info: http://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/corrective.html

Which was followed up with...

Ms. Topka,
Please provide the name of the person or group of individuals responsible for determining that such a standard is not feasible, along with the documentation of the findings of the investigation. As simply basing a decision on a quarter century old case of public panic is not very scientific. It appears through public record that hundreds of millions of dollars have been allocated to the CPSC over the years, please disclose the amount of these funds that have been associated with the determination that a standard is allegedly unfeasible.
In addition, for sake of argument you state that there is no requirement for the Commission to produce a standard although the CPSC is responsible for such a standards implementation and you also agree that the CPSIA clearly references that a standard is required. Is the CPSC willing to review a standard written by a third party?
As I stated before, public opinion of the three wheeled ATV was greatly affected by non scientific reports created by television news magazines in the mid 1980’s, I would like to think that with the passing of a quarter of a century that the CPSC could not be easily swayed by the media, in particular media reports that date back a quarter of a century, and I am asking for confirmation of any studies being done on the concept of a three wheeled ATV since the mid 1980’s. I believe that it is a safe assumption that there is a large number of associates that work for the CPSC that were in fact born after the original consent decree was implemented, and that a large majority were not employed there when the original studies were completed. With that being said it’s an undeniable fact that technology has increased over the past twenty five years, that along with a better understanding of the ATV safety programs that have been implemented since the consent decree began will allow a more accurate analysis of the three wheeled ATV. If you review the facts leading up to the consent decree many of the concerns were that no safety training was offered, no age/weight recommendations in relation to ATV size had been officially suggested. In essence what amounted to public ignorance of the machines led to the great public outcry of the 1980’s. The issues involving safety concerns have been generally covered with the implementation of safety programs related to ATV’s in general and yet the standoffish nature of your boilerplate responses to my inquiries regarding the safety standard for three wheeled ATV’s leaves an impression of a biased opinion of them without any recent scientific or statistical documentation to support your statements. It appears that ignorance of the machine by the public in general lead to the consent decree and refusal to examine the safety programs in relation to ATV’s in general by the CPSC is just an attempt to further sweep the ignorance under the rug.
After all, and by all means please correct me if I am not correct, but as part of the consent decree was it not agreed that the three wheeled version of the ATV had no adherent design flaw, if that is the case, how can it be determined unfeasible for the CPSA or a third party to produce a mandatory safety standard?

Rodd Hoffman

[Fungo Wizard]

Man you continue to amaze me with the depth of your letter. You have what I like to call "common sense" questions for her, but the commission keeps coming back with their robotic jargon to every question. Keep after her, and let us know what we need to do to help the fight.

[atctim]

great writing Todd. It amazes me that with all the tax dollars and man-power the CPSC gets that they simply pick and choose what is safe for us lemmings rather than to conclude any scientific studies. Keep on them about this - I think it is just another agency that has gotten way to "big for their brithches"!