As required by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (“CPSIA”), the Consumer Product Safety Commission published ANSI/SVIA 1-2007 as a mandatory consumer product safety standard for ATVs. The standard became effective on April 13, 2009. ANSI/SVIA has since issued a 2010 version of the standard. The Commission issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on July 25, 2011 and is soon expected to issue a final rule amending the mandatory standard to reference the 2010 version.
The Commission found that though most of the changes in the 2010 version are relatively minor, merely enhancing the standard’s clarity and consistency, the Commission thought it best to incorporate all of the provisions of ANSI/SVIA 1-2010 in order to avoid any confusion with two slightly different versions of the standard, the current mandatory standard and the revised voluntary standard.
The most substantive of the changes noted by the Commission in the 2010 version are as follows: (1) elimination from the scope section of a provision calling for expiration of the definition and requirements for the Y-12+ youth ATV age category on July 28, 2011; (2) a change in how to calculate the speed for the braking test of youth ATVs; (3) a change in the force applied to passenger handholds during testing; (4) the addition of a requirement that youth ATVs shall not have a power take-off mechanism; (5) the addition of a requirement that youth ATVs shall not have a foldable, removable, or retractable structure in the ATV foot environment; (6) additional specificity concerning the location and method of operation of the brake control; (7) tightening the park brake performance requirement, by requiring the transmission to be in “neutral” during testing, rather than in “neutral” or “park”; and (8) the requirement that tire pressure information be on the label, when the previous requirement could be interpreted to allow tire pressure to be either on the label, the owner’s manual, or the tires.
If the Commission issues a final rule, the 2010 standard will become effective 60 days after publication of the final rule in the Federal Register. The rule will apply to all ATVs manufactured or imported on or after that date.