341 SOUTH PATRICK STREET - ALEXANDRIA, VA 22314 - PH: 703.549.7600 - FAX: 703.549.7604 –WWW.OPEI.ORG

March 19, 2015

Ms. Caroleene Paul, Project Manager

Directorate for Engineering Sciences

Consumer Product Safety Commission,

5 Research Place, Rockville, MD 20850;

Submitted via electronic mail

RE: 16 CFR Part 1422, Safety Standard for Recreational Off-Highway Vehicles (ROVs); 

Proposed Rule – OPEI Comment Period Extension Request

Dear Ms. Paul,

The Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI) respectfully submits this letter to 

request an extension to the April 8th, 2015 deadline to submit comments on CPSC’s 

ROV NPRM. OPEI previously had requested an extension to August 30, 2015. OPEI 

appreciates the Commission’s pervious extension of the comment period deadline to 

April 8th, however there is still significant and substantive work ongoing by both industry 

and the Commission staff which must be considered before stakeholders can provide 

thorough and meaningful comments to the NPRM. Therefore, OPEI requests the 

Commission extend the comment period deadline to June 19, 2015 so that we can 

continue dialogue with the Commission staff on the following ongoing items in advance 

of providing final comments:

J-Turn & Handling (“Understeer”) Test Reproducibility & Repeatability – Round 

Robin Testing

Industry continues to be concerned with the ability to repeat and reproduce the lateral 

acceleration values and pass/fail criteria at the core of CPSC’s proposed J-turn and 

Understeer tests. Test reproducibility and repeatability are critical to the integrity and 

success of this type of engineering driven standard. Thus far, limited work has been 

done by CPSC and industry to study repeatability of the J-turn and Understeer tests; 

while even less has been done to study reproducibility. Therefore, as noted in our 

December 12, 2014 extension request letter, OPEI is now conducting a “round robin”

test to further study these critical factors.

OPEI’s “round robin” test has been designed to look at the reproducibility and 

repeatability of collecting lateral acceleration measurements by testing three different

MOHUV’s, at three different test locations, with three different test rigs, by three 

different parties; each following the J-turn and Understeer test procedures outlined in 
the NPRM. We believe that this type of “round robin” test will provide a much more 

thorough understanding of reproducibility and repeatability challenges than the testing 

that has been conducted to date.

OPEI began testing on March 17th at Dynamic Research Inc.’s (DRI) facilities in 

Bakersfield, CA. Following testing at DRI, units will be shipped to John Deere for 

testing at its North Carolina facility early April. Finally, units will be shipped to Polaris for 

testing at its Minnesota facility mid-April (pending transit time, machine set-up, weather, 

etc..). 

If the above schedule holds, OPEI looks to collect and compile test data the by the end 

of April for review by the B71.9 Standard Committee late April or early May. Following 

the Committee review of the data, OPEI believes a face-to-face meeting with CPSC

staff to review both parties’ repeatability and reproducibility test results is needed prior 

to OPEI drafting and submitting final comments.

CPSC EDI/IDI Data Review

OPEI appreciates the Commission providing the remainder of the 239 Epidemiologic 

Investigation Reports (EIR) included in its 428 analysis in response to our December 

2013 FOIA request. However, with our analysis winding down, OPEI continues to be

concerned that the proposed CPSC mandatory testing requirements do not reflect the 

real-world events described in the EIR’s; and that in-turn, the sideways rollover events 

while making a turn described in the EIR’s would not have been prevented by the 

mandatory testing standards in the NPRM. Additionally, based on our preliminary 

review of CPSC’s dataset, OPEI is concerned that without additional analysis by CPSC

in some of the key areas identified by OPEI, the statistical analysis found in the NPRM

and Briefing Package will mislead stakeholders as to the effectiveness of the mandatory 

testing standards. 

Therefore, in order to better understand the NPRM, and CPCS’s accompanying 

comments and statistical analysis regarding rollover prevention, and to be able to 

provide complete and meaningful final comments, OPEI is conducting a thorough 

analysis and comparison of CPSC’s summary of these same 239 EIR cases. While 

CPSC previously provided a summary of it statistical analysis in its NPRM Briefing 

Package, it was unclear how this related to each specific EIR without CPSC’s raw 

dataset. Having received the full, un-redacted dataset on March 10, as well as 

remainder of the IDI and other related files on March 18, OPEI can now begin the 

process of comparing data to study our differences, and to better understand how 

CPSC’s analysis correlates to the NPRM and the Commission’s rollover prevention

efforts. 

Unfortunately, CPSC’s dataset is complicated, with several hundred cases, and more 

than 180 unique fields for each case. Additionally, CPSC has made cross-reference 

and comparison of the data extremely complicated by using yet another unique record 

number for each case (CPSC does include the EIR reference number in their dataset 
summary.) Therefore it will take several weeks for OPEI to organize both (OPEI’s and 

CPSC’s) extremely detailed datasets for comparison, as well as complete review the 

documents just recently provided on March 18, and coordinate the necessary review by

the B71.9 Standard Committee. And as with the repeatability and reproducibility test 

results, OPEI believes a face-to-face meeting with CPSC to review both parties’

datasets is needed prior to OPEI drafting and submitting final comments.

OPEI appreciates CPSC’s consideration of this request to extend the NPRM comment 

period to June 19, 2015. Due to the April 8th comment period deadline quickly 

approaching, we respectfully request a reply by Friday March 27, 2015.

Kind regards,

Greg Knott

Vice President, Regulatory Affairs

Outdoor Power Equipment Institute

Phone: 703-549-7600

e-mail: gknott@opei.org

Cc:

Mr Elliot Kaye, Chairman, US CPSC

Mr Robert Adler, Commissioner, US CPSC

Ms Ann Marie Buerkle, Commissioner, US CPSC

Mr Joseph Mohorovic, Commissioner, US CPSC

Ms Marietta Robinson, Commissioner, US CPSC

Ms Patricia Adkins, Executive Director, US CPSC

Mr Jay Howell, Deputy Executive Director, Safety Operations, US CPSC

Mr George Borlase, Assistant Executive Director, US CPSC