Arctic Cat Recalls: What the CPSC Records Show and What They Mean If You Were Hurt

If Your Vehicle Was Recalled: What an Arctic Cat Recall Is — and What It Is Not

A recall is a corrective action a manufacturer takes when a consumer product presents a safety hazard. Sometimes the company takes it on its own after reporting a problem. Sometimes it follows an order from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the federal agency that oversees and publishes recall notices for off-highway vehicles. Each Arctic Cat notice discussed here comes from the CPSC's own website.

Federal law sets up both paths. Under 15 U.S.C. § 2064, a manufacturer, distributor or retailer that obtains information that "reasonably supports the conclusion" that a product has a defect that could create a substantial product hazard, or "creates an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death," must "immediately inform the Commission." This applies unless the company knows the Commission has already been adequately told. After an opportunity for a hearing, the same section lets the Commission order public notice and remedies, including repair, replacement or a refund.

A recall notice is a public safety record. It is not a court finding. It is not an admission of liability, and it does not determine that the vehicle caused any particular injury.

It helps to keep four things separate:

• A recall notice records a hazard and a remedy.
• An incident report describes something that someone reported.
• A lawsuit is a set of allegations that one party makes against another.
• A verdict is a decision a court reaches after the evidence is heard.

For someone who was hurt, this means a recall can be a starting point but not an answer. The first question is usually narrower than whether a recall exists: it is whether a recall covers the exact vehicle and model year involved.

Arctic Cat or Textron on Your Vehicle: Who Makes These Vehicles

The CPSC notices name the manufacturer in two ways.

The 2016 notice lists "Arctic Cat Inc., of Thief River Falls, Minn." The notices from 2017 through 2019 list "Arctic Cat Inc., of Thief River Falls, Minn., a subsidiary of Textron Specialized Vehicles, of Augusta, Ga." That is why some notice titles say "Arctic Cat" and others say "Textron." Several notices also describe vehicles with "Textron Off Road" printed on the hood. If the vehicle in your accident carries the Textron name, it can still appear under an Arctic Cat recall.

If you are trying to match your vehicle to a notice, it may be described in one of two ways: as a recreational off-highway vehicle (ROV) or as an off-highway or side-by-side utility vehicle. Either way, the notices describe four wheels and seats placed next to each other, seating two, three, four or six people depending on the model.

For someone looking back at an accident, this step is about identification only. It helps match the name on the vehicle to the right federal record, but it says nothing about how the accident happened or who may be responsible.

The CPSC Recall Notices: Vehicles, Hazards, and Dates

Each notice below is its own record. Each covers only the vehicles it describes.

CPSC recall 16-768, dated August 23, 2016, covers "all model year 2016 Arctic Cat 700 HDX models and model year 2017 Arctic Cat 700 HDX CREW models within the vehicle identification number range of 300001 through 301280." Its stated hazard is that "the throttle cable can stick and prevent the throttle mechanism from returning to an idle position upon release of the throttle and cause the rider to lose control, posing a crash hazard and risk of injury." The notice records 14 reports of the throttle cable malfunctioning, "including one report of a wrist injury."

CPSC recall 18-017, dated October 27, 2017, covers model year 2014 through 2017 Wildcat Trail and 2015 through 2017 Wildcat Sport ROVs. Its stated hazard is: "Heat from the exhaust can melt the plastic panels behind the operator and passenger seat, posing a fire hazard." The notice records 444 reports of melting panels, "with five resulting in fires," and states that no injuries have been reported.

CPSC recall 18-037, dated November 16, 2017, covers two groups. The first is 2017 Wildcat Trail SE and Wildcat Sport SE ROVs with winch solenoids installed as original equipment. The second is winch accessory kits sold separately for 2014 through 2017 Wildcat Sport and Wildcat Trail ROVs. Its stated hazard is: "The winch solenoid located under the operator seat can overheat, posing a fire hazard."

CPSC recall 19-726, dated March 5, 2019, covers model year 2019 Textron Havoc vehicles with VINs ending in 9007497 through 9007717. Its stated hazard is: "Fuel can leak from the fuel line, posing a fire hazard." Under incidents, it states "None reported."

CPSC recall 19-727, also dated March 5, 2019, covers model year 2018 Stampede and Rustler vehicles with VIN numbers 9003240 through 9004062. Its stated hazard is: "The lower front suspension arm can fail, posing a crash hazard."

CPSC recall 19-746, dated May 22, 2019, covers all model year 2018 and 2019 Textron Havoc ROVs. Its stated hazard is: "The upper front suspension arms can fail, posing a crash hazard." It records six reports of front suspension arm failures and states, "No crashes or injuries have been reported."

The remedy listed on each notice is a free repair. Each notice also states that consumers should immediately stop using the recalled vehicles.

If your vehicle appears on one of these lists, the notice tells you which hazard was identified for that group of vehicles. Whether that hazard has anything to do with your own crash or fire is a separate question, taken up below.

What 'Crash Hazard' and 'Fire Hazard' Mean in a Recall Notice

The hazard label in a recall notice is the CPSC's short name for the category of risk that was identified and reported. Across these notices, three labels appear: "crash hazard," "fire hazard," and "fuel leak and fire hazard."

A crash hazard notice describes a condition that could lead to a crash: here, a throttle cable that can stick and suspension arms that can fail. A fire hazard notice describes a condition that could lead to a fire: exhaust heat reaching plastic panels, a winch solenoid that can overheat, and a fuel line that can leak.

A label names a possible risk in a group of vehicles. It does not say that the risk occurred in any particular vehicle, and it does not establish that it caused any particular accident or injury. Several of these notices say plainly that no injuries, or no crashes, had been reported when the notice issued.

Many crashes and rollovers have nothing to do with a recalled part. Terrain, speed, how the vehicle was driven or loaded, and the condition of the place where it was ridden can all play a part, and each points toward a different legal question.

If you were hurt in a crash or a fire, it is natural to see a matching hazard label and wonder whether it explains what happened. Answering that depends on the physical evidence from your accident, not on the label alone. Whether a recall record is relevant to a specific accident is one of the questions a conversation with our attorney can help sort out.

Does a Recall Help Your Injury Claim? How a Recall Record Fits Into a Product-Liability Claim

Product liability is the area of law under which a person injured by a product may seek to hold its manufacturer or seller responsible if the product had a defect that caused the injury. Many people who search "Arctic Cat lawsuit" are really asking whether a recall settles that question. It does not.

A product-liability claim generally asks three things:

• whether the product had a defect;
• whether that defect caused the injury; and
• what harm resulted.

Each of these depends on the facts of the case.

For its reporting rules, the CPSC describes a defect in 16 C.F.R. § 1115.4 as "a fault, flaw, or irregularity that causes weakness, failure, or inadequacy in form or function." Under that regulation, a defect may come from a manufacturing error, from a product's design or materials, or from its "contents, construction, finish, packaging, warnings, and/or instructions." That is the agency's working definition for deciding what must be reported. In an injury claim, it is state law that decides what counts as a defect.

A recall notice can be one piece of evidence that a hazard was identified. It does not replace proof of each element. Other possible theories may apply instead of, or alongside, product liability: negligence by a driver, owner or rental operator, or a premises issue at the place where the vehicle was ridden. Which of these, if any, fit depends on the facts that can be supported.

Fault rules, limitation periods and damages rules all differ by state. If you were hurt, the details that usually matter here include the vehicle's model and year, the recall notice for that model if one exists, the accident report, medical records and photos. Readers comparing records across brands can see the site's pages on Polaris recall records, Can-Am recall records and Yamaha recall records. The general framework appears on the ATV accident claims page.

Why the Model Year and Vehicle Type on Your Title Matter

A recall applies only to the vehicles its notice describes. Some notices define their scope by model and model year. Others narrow it further by VIN range. Recall 16-768, for example, limits its 2017 700 HDX CREW models to a specific VIN range. Recall 19-726 limits the 2019 Havoc to VINs ending in 9007497 through 9007717.

The notices also describe where to find the VIN. For the 2018 Stampede and Rustler and the 2019 Havoc, the notices place it under the front hood. For the 700 HDX CREW, the notice says it is stamped into the upper frame tube under the rear of the cargo box.

Coverage can change a person's position in a real way. A vehicle outside every notice is in a different position from one inside a notice. A covered vehicle that never received its repair raises a separate set of factual questions. Each notice states that Arctic Cat was "contacting all known purchasers directly." Whether a particular owner received that contact, and whether the repair was done, are facts, not legal conclusions.

When a vehicle has been damaged, or has changed hands, these details can be hard to pin down. The records that usually help confirm the model, year and VIN include:

• the title and registration;
• the purchase receipt;
• the dealer's service history; and
• any recall letter that was received.

Limitation Periods, Fault Rules, and Why State Law Governs

Injury and product-liability claims from ATV and UTV accidents are generally decided under state law. No single state's rule applies everywhere.

A statute of limitations is a law that sets a deadline for filing a legal claim. After that deadline passes, the claim may be barred no matter how strong it is. The length of the period differs by state, as do the point at which the clock starts and the exceptions that may pause or extend it.

Fault rules also shape what an injured person can recover. If you share some responsibility for what happened, your own share of fault could reduce the amount recoverable under a comparative fault rule, and some states bar recovery once that share passes a certain point. A few states follow a stricter contributory fault rule, under which your own fault could eliminate recovery entirely. Which rule applies, and how it works, depends on the state.

Damages rules and wrongful-death rules also vary by state. Families after a death face their own set of questions, including who may bring a claim.

For someone hurt in a crash, these rules can matter as much as the recall record itself. The state where the accident happened is usually a starting point for working out which deadline and fault rule may apply. If you would like to talk through which state's rules may govern what happened, you can request a case evaluation with our attorney.