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 Powe r Equipment Institute (OPEI) respectfully submits this letter to request an extension to the April 8 th , 2015 deadline to submit comments on CPSC’s

ROV NPR M

. OPEI previously had re quested an extension to August 30, 2015. OPEI appreciates the Commission ’ s pervious extension of the comment period deadline to April 8 th , however th ere is still significant and substantive work ongoing by both ind ustry
and the Commission staff which must be considered before stakeholders can provide thorough and meaningful comments to the NPR M . Therefore, OPEI request s the

Commission extend the comment period deadline to June 19 , 2015 so that we can continue di alo gue 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 n ow 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 colle c ting 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 proce dures outlined inthe NPR M . We believe that this type of “round robin” test will provide a much more thorough u nderstanding of reproducibility and repeatability challenges than the testing

that has been conducted to date.

OPEI began t esting on March 17 th at Dynamic Research Inc

. ’s (DRI) facilities in Bakersfield, CA. Following testing at DRI, units will be shippe d 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 S tan dard C ommittee late April or early May. Following

the C ommittee review of the data, OPEI believes a face

- to

- face meeting with CPSC

staff to review both parties ’ rep eatability 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 NPR M

. Additionally , based on our preliminary

review of CPS C’s dataset, OPEI is concerned that wit hout additional analysis by CPSC in some of the key areas identified by OPEI , the statistical analysis found in the NPR M and Briefing Pa ckage will mislead stakeholders as to the effectiveness of the mandatory testing standards

.

Therefore, in order to be tter understand the NPR M

, and CPCS’s accompanying

comments and statistical analysis regarding rollover prevention, and to be able to provide complete and meaning ful final comments, OPEI is conduct ing a thorough analysis and comparison of CPSC’s summary of the se same 239 EIR cases. While CPSC previously provided a summary of it statistical analysis in its NPR M Briefing Package, it was unclear how this related to each specific EIR without CPSC’s ra w 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 NPR M 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 a nother unique record

numbe r for each case (CPSC does include the EIR reference number in their datasetsummary.) Therefore i t 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 C ommittee. And as with the repeatability and reproducibility test

results , OPEI believes a face

- to

- face meeting with CPSC to review both parties ’

datasets is nee ded 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 8 th 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 Ma rie Buerkle, Commissioner, US C P S C 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 Georg e Borlase, Ass istant Executive Director, US C P S C