On March 31, 2009, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”), in cooperation with Yamaha Motor Corp. U.S.A., announced a repair program of the Rhino 450, 660, and 700 models to address rollover safety defects which have killed at least 46 persons. Until repaired by a Yamaha dealer, these Rhino models should not be driven.

The CPSC’s action followed upon a comprehensive analysis of the safety defects of the Yamaha Rhino that a group of safety advocates and victim families sent the CPSC last month in a report entitled “Citizen Report on UTV Vehicle Hazards.”

Authors of the report included the Center for Auto Safety, the Trauma Foundation, parents of children killed or injured in Rhino rollovers, and Fabrice N. Vincent, an attorney with Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, the law firm that assisted in the report’s preparation. Input came from experts in vehicle design, injury causation, and vehicle hazard identification.

“In addition to the 46 deaths, scores of adults, teenagers, and children across America have been left permanently disabled after their hands, arms, feet, and legs have been crushed in Yamaha Rhino accidents. Many of these injuries would not have occurred if Yamaha had incorporated readily available safety measures in the original design of the Rhino,” noted attorney Vincent. “Yamaha’s repair program is an important step in ending this ongoing national tragedy. However, Yamaha must acknowledge its legal responsibility to those that have been injured or killed and undertake additional key safety adjustments to fully protect consumers.”

Scores of adults, teenagers, and children across America have been left permanently disabled after their hands, arms, feet, and legs have been crushed, and some have died, in rollover accidents involving the Yamaha Rhino UTV asserts a recent report issued by victims and consumer safety advocates which has been summarized on OpEd News.

The commentary notes that 38 deaths, many of them of children, are believed to have occurred in Yamaha Rhino accidents in the United States since the end of 2004. One of these was the death of nine-year-old J.T. Crow. Although he was belted, Crow was ejected in a rollover accident and crushed underneath the half-ton Rhino, which was sold by Yamaha without doors or safety netting to contain its occupants.

“Lawsuits filed against Yamaha allege that from its introduction to the market in 2004, the Yamaha Rhino has been a rollover-prone vehicle with numerous safety defects,” stated Fabrice N. Vincent of the national plaintiffs’ law firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, and a co-author of the report. “The complaints in these lawsuit have charged believe that none of the injuries or deaths would have occurred if Yamaha had incorporated readily available safety measures in the design of the Rhino that would have protected occupants during a rollover.”

Read the full Op-Ed article at OpEdNews.