Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

On April 1, the day that Yamaha Motor Co. announced its “voluntary repair campaign” for its Rhino UTVs, John and Tammy Sand received a phone call from the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission thanking them for their efforts in raising awareness about the dangers of the off-road vehicles.

The Sands lost their 10-year-old daughter Ellie when the Rhino she was a passenger in rolled over, crushing her head between the ground and the vehicle’s unpadded roll cage. The accident occurred when the driver, traveling at 15 mph on flat terrain, attempted to make a right turn. Ellie suffered a massive brain injury and died the following day.

Since Ellie’s death, the Sands have courageously turned their grief into a positive effort to call attention to the dangers of the Yamaha Rhino. They forged alliances with families of other victims who were killed or injured in Rhino rollovers and they flooded the CPSC with testimonies. Then, after months of investigations, the CPSC announced what is effectively a recall of the Rhinos.

The CPSC has advised all Rhino owners to immediately stop driving their UTVs until Yamaha makes a series of repairs and improvements to the vehicles, free of charge, at a Yamaha dealership. Yamaha Motor Co. has advised all its dealerships to discontinue selling additional Rhino 450, 660, and 700 models until those same modifications have been performed. The modifications are intended to give the Rhino more stability and reduce the chances of being maimed or killed in a rollover.

John and Tammy Sand can now share a sense of accomplishment, and they are pleased that the CPSC pushed Yamaha to take a step in the right direction.

“It made us feel good,” Sands told the Middletown Journal. “I don’t want to take credit for this, but it’s a fight we took up for Ellie.”

Resources: Ellie’s Mission Page; Yamaha Motor Co.; CPSC; Middletown Journal

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