While Hunting Season Is In Full Swing, ATV Injury Lawyer, Jim
Alder Reminds ATV Owners Of Their Hidden Dangers
Released
on: December 3, 2008, 4:56 am
Press
Release Author: Jim
Adler & Associates
Industry:
Consumer
Services, Law
Press
Release Summary: Jim Adler, an ATV injury lawyer whose warning
is backed up by The American Academy of Pediatrics, Safe Kids
Worldwide and the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, exposes
the hidden dangers of ATVs, especially the Yamaha Rhino.
Press
Release Body: Houston, Texas -- December 2, 2008 -- “If
you hand people a gun that shoots backwards, don’t act shocked
at what happens.”
That’s
ATV injury lawyer Jim Adler talking about ATV
manufacturers and their deceptive advertising. The advertising
says that ATVs are a great way to have fun. But this personal
injury attorney is hearing from people all over the United States
who have been seriously injured in ATV accidents.
2008
case files at the Adler law firm reveal the grim
reality that manufacturers don’t talk about: The ATV can
cause life-altering accidents at low speeds with no warning, especially
in the Yamaha Rhino.
•
A Florida woman began having severe headaches two months after
an accident in a Yamaha Rhino. An MRI showed a skull fracture
and scar fragments sticking into her brain. The Yamaha Rhino passenger
had two brain surgeries.
•
An Arizona honor student was taken by life-flight to a hospital
with a broken right leg, a fractured neck, broken ribs, a broken
collarbone and punctured lungs. He has dropped out of school due
to brain damage from bleeding in the brain.
Callers
from 18 states this year have been telling Adler similar tales.
Some injuries aren’t life threatening: a broken foot or
leg. But all needed a doctor’s attention. Many required
hospitalization. Some have permanent disabilities. And one died
from head injuries.
What makes the ATV, particularly the Yamaha Rhino, so dangerous?
Its design flaws and lack of safety equipment. ATVs have a narrow
wheelbase and high center of gravity. That makes them “tippy.”
The two-seater Yamaha Rhino lacks doors, safety handles and other
safety equipment. It is particularly dangerous since it is larger
and heavier than most ATVs.
Victims
of ATV accidents report rollovers at low speeds – at two
to three miles per hour one client said – when they tried
to make a turn. Some ATVs have flipped suddenly, landing on arms
and legs, crushing them. Videos show ATVs jerking and bouncing
over sand dunes and on back trails heading to hunting cabins,
deer stands and duck blinds. YouTube is full of daredevil stunts
on ATVs in contests and exhibitions. Sales of the recreational
sports vehicles are a fast growing-component of the automotive
market. That worries Yamaha rhino injury attorney Jim
Adler.
“The
rates of death and injury to kids in ATVs would knock your socks
off and the companies that make ATVs know it,” Adler
says.
In 2005, an emergency room doctor with the American Academy of
Pediatrics called ATVs the “perfect recipe for tragedy”
given their unstable design. “Safe Kids Worldwide, the American
Academy of Pediatrics, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission,
and the Consumer Federation of America, have been calling for
a ban on kids under 16 in ATVs since 1987 because they know how
deadly they are.”
An
ATV crash is “…12 times as likely to kill a child
as an accident with a bicycle,” according to Safe Kids.
Adler is a member of several Safe Kids coalitions in large U.S.
cities. The coalitions work to reduce preventable accidents –
the number one killer of children 14 and under.
The
deadly design of the early ATVs prompted the Justice Department
to file suit against the manufacturers, claiming that they violated
the Consumer Product Safety Act. In 1987, major ATV manufacturers
and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission approved a 10-year
Consent Decree, which among several provisions agreed to stop
making the deadly three-wheeled ATV. Makers began manufacturing
ATVs with four wheels but many three-wheelers remain in use.
The Wall Street Journal slammed the ATV industry in an article
in February 2004, pointing out federal statistics showing that
in 2002 more than 110,000 ATV riders were injured seriously enough
to require emergency department treatment and that one-third of
these were under the age of 16. In 2007, this number has increased
to over 150,000 with 27% occurring in children.
About
the Company:
Jim
Adler is a lawyer with 30 years experience in all types of personal
injury cases. He is also a TV and radio personality who has served
the public for 25 years on TV and radio talk shows, in newspaper
interviews and on civic group panels discussing the legal rights
of accident victims. His law firm, Jim S. Adler & Associates
represents the seriously and catastrophically injured in Texas
and other states.
Web
Site: http://www.jimadler.com/yamaha-rhino-accident-lawyer.html
Contact
Details: Jim S. Adler & Associates
1900 West Loop South, 20th Floor
Houston, TX 77027
1-800-505-1414
http://www.jimadler.com
Press Contact: Jodie Sinclair
email address: JSinclair@jsapc.com
2009
