On April 29, 2010, a new defective product safety recall was voluntarily carried out by the U.S. CPSC and Yamaha Motor Corp. Consumers should stop using the product immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Yamaha All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs)

Units: About 20,000

Manufacturer: Yamaha Motor Corporation U.S.A., of Cypress, California.

Hazard: The steering column support assembly can crack and cause the rider to lose steering control, posing a risk of injury or death to riders.

Incidents/Injuries: Yamaha has received 19 reports of incidents involving the recalled ATVs. No injuries have been reported.

Description: This recall involves the non-power steering models. Model names can be found on both the right and left hand side of the unit on the side panel.The following model numbers are affected by this recall:

Sold at: Yamaha dealers nationwide from October 2007 through March 2010 for between $7,000 and $9,500.

Manufactured in: Japan

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled ATVs and contact their local Yamaha dealer to schedule a free repair. Registered owners were sent direct mail notification of the recall.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Yamaha at (800) 962-7926 any time or visit the company’s website at www.yahama-motor.com

On April 21, 2010, two sets of DeSoto County, Mississippi parents joined hundreds of other people across the country suing Yamaha for wrongful injury or death. They jointly filed their lawsuit in state court in Gwinnett County, Georgia, where defendant Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corporation of America has its principal office, according to a recently published DeSoto Times Tribune news report.

The couples each lost a daughter on October 18, 2008, when a Yamaha Rhino in which the 11-year-old girls were riding rolled over after leaving and then being steered back onto a paved surface in a community south of Olive Branch.

The girls’ deaths are among nearly 50 attributed to the Yamaha Rhino and which drew attention from the Consumer Product Safety Commission last year during its investigation into whether regulations are needed for four-wheeled all-terrain vehicles, sometimes called side-by-sides or ROVs.

ROVs in general resemble rugged golf carts and are blamed for more than 100 deaths since 2003. However, the Yamaha Rhino has been alleged responsible for more deaths, and injuries, than any other brand.

Approximately 700 lawsuits in federal and state courts involve Yamaha and its two Rhino models, both which were voluntarily recalled last March for free repairs aimed at reducing the chance of rollover and increasing passenger safety.

The lawsuit also claims some of the Yamaha Rhino’s safety features are inadequate and in many rollovers, contributed to injury or death rather than preventing it.

ROVs, also called side-by-sides, are two-passenger motorized vehicles designed for drivers 16 years and older. They resemble a cross between a rugged-looking golf cart and a miniature-Jeep, and have a roll cage, metal bars framing the cab.

The industry proposed voluntary regulations for side-by-sides, but CPSC staffers said they fell short. Agency members have expressed concern about the vehicles and rollover risks. The commission will solicit comments from industry, consumer advocates and others as it writes the rules. This is the beginning of a process that could take many months, even years.

ROVs first appeared on the market in the late 1990s. Since 2003, CPSC says 116 people have died, including young children, and more than 150 have been injured. Injuries have involved crushing fractures to legs, feet and arms and some riders have lost limbs.

Safety advocates say the commission’s vote puts the industry on notice.

“This is an instance where the industry has not been responding quickly and effectively enough to the well-documented hazards caused by these products,” said Rachel Weintraub, director of product safety and senior counsel for the Consumer Federation of America.

ROV makers, however, insist the vehicles are safe. “We know the vehicles are safe when used responsibly,” the Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association said in a statement. “We must emphasize the importance of consumers making the right choices when driving an ROV.”

Former agency chief, Nancy Nord, first directed the CPSC staff to investigate the vehicles and deaths a year ago.

In March, Yamaha Motor Corp. USA recalled more than 100,000 of its Rhino off-highway recreational vehicles for repairs after two models were linked to 46 deaths in the past six years. In many cases, riders were not wearing seat belts, the commission said. And in a number of incidents, rollovers happened on level ground at relatively slow speeds, the agency said.

The vehicles can reach top speeds of more than 35 miles an hour. Industry officials declined to say how fast they can go, but several dealers put top speeds at about 40 to 50 miles an hour. Yamaha did not immediately return calls about top speeds for its ROVs.

Presently, there are mandatory restrictions for ATVs, such as speed limits for youth models. But there are no standards, voluntary or otherwise, for the side-by-sides, which have the roll cage and a different steering system.

An estimated, 140,000 ROVs were sold last year in the United States.

The two men were injured when the Yamaha Rhino ATV they were operating rolled down an embankment, and they were ejected from the vehicle. Neither man was wearing a seat belt nor helmet, according to Scott County deputies.

The accident remains under investigation by the Scott County Sheriff’s Department.

For example, in rural Nebraska, ATV accidents have become the number one cause of agricultural fatalities. From 2004 through 2007, one-third of agricultural fatalities involved ATVs. The trend prompted the University of Nebraska Extension last year to hold ATV training sessions across the state.

The Consumer Product Safety Safety Commission (CPSC) reported last year that serious injuries because of ATV crashes have increased for eight years in a row to a total of 150,900 in 2007. Since 2001, the number of injuries serious enough to require emergency room treatment has risen by 37 percent. Nationwide, at least 542 ATV fatalities were reported.

The Yamaha Rhino ATV, which has side-by-side seating for the driver and a passenger, has been targeted by lawsuits alleging that it is unstable and prone to rollovers. Yamaha has offered free repairs to improve safety.

Safety experts are particularly concerned about the number of ATV accidents involving children. About one-third of injuries and deaths happen to children age 16 or younger.

Because safety rules are so prevalent in today’s society, some people may not be attuned to the need to evaluate the risks of operating an ATV.

CPSC’s safety message is especially targeted at Yamaha Rhino drivers and passengers. In March 2009, a free vehicle repair and helmet giveaway was offered to all owners of Rhino model 450, 660 and 700 ROVs, in order to enhance stability and reduce the potential for rollover, as well as improve occupant protection. About 145,000 vehicles were affected, and we urge every owner to act now to bring their Rhino into a Yamaha dealership for the free upgrades.

CPSC believes that in order to provide a safer ride, all Rhinos must have half-doors, additional passenger handholds, spacers on the rear wheels, and the rear anti-sway bar removed.  Consumers should immediately stop using Rhino ROVs until the repairs are installed by a dealer. While these repairs will improve the safety of these vehicles, the repairs alone are not enough. Owners of vehicles should be sure that riders and passengers:

• wear their seat belt properly every time,
• strap on their helmet every time,
• follow on-product warnings,
• never remove the half-doors,
• never allow a child younger than 16 to drive,
• never allow a child to be a passenger if he/she is unable to place both feet on the floorboard with his/her back against the seat, and
• only operate off-road—the Rhino is not designed for use on public roads or paved surfaces.

Improving the safety system of the vehicle, combined with occupant attention to safe riding practices, will lead to reduced deaths and injuries.

As of June 23, 2009, CPSC staff has received reports of nearly 60 fatalities involving the 450, 660 and 700 models of the Yamaha Rhino. A number of very serious injuries have also been reported, including injuries to the head and neck, and incidents requiring surgical amputation of victims’ arms, legs, and fingers. Many of these cases appear to have involved rollovers at relatively low speeds and on level terrain.

For additional information on the free Rhino repair program, contact Yamaha at 800-962-7926 anytime, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.yamaha-motor.com. To report consumer product related incidents contact CPSC’s Hotline at 1-800-628-2772 or visit CPSC’s website at www.cpsc.gov

Apprehensions over additional cases of the rare disease have been weighing down sales of the drug for more than a year. Still, the company has backed the risk profile and said physicians have become more comfortable with the potential side effects.

Additionally on June 26, 2009, Biogen Idec Inc announced that a tenth patient taking Tysabri developed progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML).

Since the drug was reintroduced, about 24,900 patients have received at least one year of therapy, with 14,400 receiving 18 months of therapy and 6,800 with 2 years of therapy. In all, there were about 40,000 patients on the drug at the end of March, with 20,800 in the United States.

The Yamaha Rhino has a roll cage and looks like a cross between a four wheeler and a lawn tractor. It weighs 1,105 pounds and is considered an ATU, which the “U” stands for utility. It is made primarily for hauling and towing and has a small bed capable of carrying 400 pounds. Its top speed is less than 40 mph.

Yamaha released the Rhino series in 2003. On March 31, 2009, the company began offering a free repair program after the machines were deemed susceptible to rollovers. The work was recommended but not required because of the potential danger.

Yamaha stands behind the design of the Rhino, a two-seat vehicle that looks a little like a cross between a golf cart and all-terrain vehicle. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said its investigation of this type of vehicle, which it calls a utility terrain vehicle, or UTV, was prompted by various factors, including the number of accident reports and the lawsuits. The Rhino is at the center of its investigation, people familiar with it said.

Yamaha said plaintiffs’ lawyers “have seized on safety and product enhancements that Yamaha has made to the Rhino to allege baseless claims about the stability of the vehicles.”

Many injury claims, the company said, stem from improper operation, modifications such as removing the protective “roll cage,” or failure to use a helmet and seat belt. “If you operate it carefully and use some common sense and good judgment, it’s a really great product,” said Roy Watson, general manager of legal for Yamaha Motor Corp. USA, a unit of Japan’s Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd.

The Rhino matter shows how federal safety regulators sometimes struggle to respond to what they call “emerging hazard” areas. There are no regulatory standards for the new breed of off-road vehicles, the CPSC said.

They aren’t subject to ATV safety standards because of design differences such as having a steering wheel, in contrast to the ATVs’ handlebars. But the novel off-road vehicles also aren’t subject to the much-tougher standards for cars. Owners of UTVs don’t have to register them.

“When there is no standard in place, we have to basically determine if there’s a substantial risk of injury and death, and there’s a hurdle there that has to be met,” says Jay Howell, acting assistant executive director of the CPSC’s office of hazard identification and reduction.

This is how consumer regulation often works: Products hit the market governed by no particular safety standards. If injury reports later arise concerning a product, these gradually get the attention of both manufacturers and regulators often with a spur from lawyers for those injured.

Yamaha, which has made safety modifications and stepped up warnings to consumers in recent years, said it looks forward to working with the CPSC and consumer groups to develop safety standards for this type of vehicle.

There’s no way to know what action, if any, will result from the CPSC inquiry. But it’s illustrative to look at the years-long course of the agency’s handling of an earlier emerging hazard one concerning ATVs.

The agency looked into those off-road vehicles in 1985 after over 100 deaths and 100,000 injuries were linked to them. The CPSC prepared a lawsuit against five distributors, seeking a judicial determination that the vehicles met its threshold for an “imminently hazardous” consumer product. But on the day in 1987 the suit was filed, the agency reached a preliminary settlement with distributors that ultimately banned future production and sale of three-wheel ATV models in the U.S. and called for distributors of four-wheel models to offer safety training, more-explicit warning labels, and warnings that children not drive vehicles of inappropriate size.

In 1990, a trade group published a voluntary safety standard for four-wheel ATVs, for things such as “pitch stability,” or resistance to rolling over. But cheaper ATVs came in from China, some lacking certain safety features, and last year, the CPSC issued a warning about some of them.

Then this August, federal legislation toughening regulation of various products made it possible, for the first time, for voluntary ATV safety standards to become mandatory. They will next April. Once there are mandatory standards for a product, the CPSC can act quickly if it spots an apparent safety problem, because a failure to meet the standard can lead to a recall or civil penalty.

Though the Rhino isn’t subject to any regulatory standards, Yamaha says it voluntarily complies with some federal standards for vehicle parts, such as seat belts.

The Rhino, made in Newnan, Ga., went through thousands of hours of premarket testing that included stability tests, says Yamaha’s Mr. Watson. The first Rhino came out in 2003. Yamaha designed the vehicles, now costing about $11,000, to offer aging ATV owners something with the comfort of a golf cart or minicar but the excitement of an ATV. The vehicles have bucket seats. Until this year, doors weren’t standard equipment on them.

Owners use Rhinos in various ways: trail riding, farm chores and hunting. They can hold 400 pounds of cargo.

At 54.4 inches wide, the Rhino is narrower than all but one major competitor, able to fit on many trails and in a large pickup. In interviews, plaintiffs’ lawyers claim the Rhino’s combination of design factors, including its narrowness and height, raises its risk of tipping over. One competitor markets a model by saying it has a lower center of gravity than the Rhino.

Yamaha says the Rhino was designed to go many places an ATV can go and had to have certain dimensions to handle obstacles such as rocks, ravines and hanging tree limbs. Mr. Watson says a strong roll cage adds protection that ATVs lack.

Chris Hewett, a 44-year-old mechanic in Tyler, Texas, took a 2007 Rhino 660 for a test spin in July after doing some repair work on it. He says he lost control during a “fairly sharp” right-hand turn and the Rhino began to topple to its left. He says he stuck his leg out of the vehicle, which was doorless, to keep the Rhino from tipping over, but it did go over, pinning his leg.

Rhinos weigh about 1,100 pounds. “It just snapped my leg,” says Mr. Hewett, who now has a metal device in the leg.

Mr. Hewett says he was on a “very flat, level” area and not driving aggressively but only about 10 miles an hour. He was wearing a seat belt, adds his representation.

Yamaha said it can’t respond to “unsubstantiated allegations where no claim has been filed.” It said that “Yamaha cares about every customer and we are deeply saddened whenever anyone is injured in a Yamaha product-related accident.”

In interviews, some plaintiffs’ lawyers allege that Yamaha failed to report Rhino problems to the CPSC as early as it should have. Yamaha says it’s been actively engaged with the agency since at least August 2006, when it informed the regulators of lawsuits and explained that some riders, against advice, were sticking out their arms or legs. It says it has conducted two demonstrations for the CPSC, which the agency confirms.

“We’ve kept the commission informed. We’ve kept our customers informed. There’s nothing hidden under a bush here,” said David Murray, Yamaha’s outside counsel.

From the start, Yamaha cautioned people to wear seat belts and helmets and to drive straight up and down hills to minimize rollover risk. In 2006 and 2007, as injuries and lawsuits started to mount, Yamaha twice sent out safety stickers that were more strongly worded. “Abrupt maneuvers or aggressive driving have caused rollovers -even on flat, open areas,” the 2007 sticker warned.

That one came with a letter offering free installation of short, windowless doors and an extra handhold, features that became standard in 2008. Yamaha has always recommended that operators be at least 16 years old and have a driver’s license.

Justin Miller of Los Angeles tried a Rhino this past Memorial Day weekend. Coming down a slope onto flat, rocky terrain, Mr. Miller, then 16, lost control while turning. He says the Rhino rocked back and forth and then turned over on its left side. His lawyer says Mr. Miller was wearing a seat belt but was partially ejected.

His mother, Edna, watching from their camp, ran toward the scene. “He said, ‘Mom, my hand,’” she says. It was almost completely severed. Doctors tried to reattach it but ultimately had to amputate. Today, his school notebook bears a sticker of a rhinoceros with a line crossing it out. Yamaha said it couldn’t comment on the incident because it had no information about it.

Injury data for utility terrain vehicles are skimpier than for ATVs. In 2006, the CPSC says, U.S. deaths related to four-wheel ATVs numbered one per 10,000 vehicles. Following the CPSC’s approach, The Wall Street Journal estimated the number of deaths involving Rhinos per 10,000 vehicles in the same year, and came up with the same number: one. The Journal divided the number of Rhinos sold in the U.S. through 2006 by the number of 2006 deaths. Yamaha supplied the number of 2006 deaths, eight. The sales figures came from a research firm, Power Products Marketing.

Yamaha called this calculation “the most basic, simple approach to getting a number,” but one that “is skewed because of the small number of products on the market.” Yamaha said that a better analysis would include the number of hours the product was used but that no such research exists.

Yamaha declined to comment on the sales figures provided by Power Products Marketing. That firm says that U.S. Rhino sales reached 42,000 in 2007. It also said that they’re down this year, which Yamaha confirms. In 2007 Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. took a $136 million charge for an increase in its accrual for product liabilities. Net income was $624 million last year at the company, which is a unit of Yamaha Corp.

Last December, Yamaha led its competitors in forming a new trade association that will set voluntary safety standards for vehicles such as the Rhino. The group is called the Recreational Off Highway Vehicle Association, and is pushing ROV as a new name for them, in place of utility terrain vehicle.

The shifting terms cause confusion for CPSC staff members, who rely on an electronic injury-surveillance system for data and scour newspaper reports of accidents involving off-road vehicles. “We’re always running behind trying to figure out what’s the word to search for,” says Mr. Howell.

DeSoto County, Coroner Jeff Pounders said the Yamaha Rhino four-wheeler was not like basic ATVs. “This one had a top, room for two passengers, a steering wheel and was much heavier than the basic ATV,” he said. “There were seatbelts in it, but apparently the girls did not have them on.”

Data from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, a safety agency that monitors ATV safety, reported there were 80 ATV-related deaths in Mississippi for children under 16 from 1982-2002.

A total of 237 ATV deaths were reported from 1982-2006 in the state. This is the first ATV-related death in DeSoto County this year.

In August 2007, Yamaha instructed Rhino dealers to install its new doors and handholds on models dating back to the Rhino’s introduction in 2003. The models affected include:

• 2004 Rhino 660 – YXR660
• 2005 Rhino 660 – YXR660
• 2006 Rhino 660 – YXR660
• 2006 Rhino 450 – YXR450
• 2007 Rhino 660 – YXR660 without doors
• 2007 Rhino 450 – YXR 450 without doors