Tougher quad bike laws introduced, but debate continues about safety issues
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Children under the age of eight in Queensland have been banned from riding as passengers on quad bikes and wearing helmets made mandatory on roads and stock routes under a shake-up of state's traffic laws.
The new laws, which came into effect on February 1, 2017 are part of the Queensland Government's response to the high rate of quad bike deaths and accidents.
Last year, half of all fatalities in Australia occurred in Queensland — and in the past 15 years, 69 people have died, many of them under the age of 16.
Not everyone was convinced it would work, based on the reaction on the response from talkback callers on ABC Radio Queensland and Facebook today.
Mick from Townsville said he agreed with the ban on children riding as passengers, but still felt quad bikes should be fitted with roll bars or cages to protect riders who rollover.
"That amount of weight on top of you just crushes you and I doubt very much, most of them die of head injuries. It's more likely the weight of the bike on top.
"The makers say they [roll bars] change the stability of the vehicle but I reckon that's rubbish," he said.
Charles from Roma said he remained sceptical, with data showing work-related farm injuries were far more likely to be caused by accidents involving horses and two-wheeler motorcycles.
Brian at Agnes Waters agreed.
"Are they going to ban people driving cars, because how many kids get killed in Australia every year from people backing out of their driveway?
"How can you make laws for everything, you can't cover everything in the bush."
But Winston from the Gemfields said his grandson would never be the same after suffering a terrible brain injury as a result of a quad bike injury. He said a helmet would have made all the difference.
Laws a fair starting point
Farm Safe Queensland's Jamie Cupples said the new laws were a fair starting point, but regulation would only address part of the problem when the vehicles were used across the landscape, both recreationally and in workplaces.
"It's not like a traffic situation where you have road enforcement out there all the time out there, it's difficult to enforce this from a regulatory point of view on properties," he said.
Mr Cupples said the new laws did not address more contentious issues such as whether manufacturers should be forced to fit roll bars or cages or, if children ought to be allowed to drive quad bikes.
"Some people would say they shouldn't be on there if they're under 16; others would say down to around 12 would probably be appropriate if they're riding an appropriately-sized bike," Mr Cupples said.
"This (law) is talking about passengers so having two or maybe three or four children being doubled on the bike or sitting in a side-by-side vehicle unrestrained where they can be ejected.. They're saying if you're under eight years old, you shouldn't be on the thing."
Apathy the real danger with quad bikes: expert
Cairns-based quad bike trainer, rider and Quad Bike Industry Reference Group member Colin Lawson said education, not regulation, was key to increasing safety on quad bikes.
Mr Lawson said he understood the practical constraints on farmers wearing helmets on quad bikes, and noted the new laws only applied to quad bikes with conditional registration operating on roadways.
He said farmers now had a 'plethora of helmet designs' to choose from after recent changes to Australian helmet standards to include European models.
A helmet being designed by Workplace, Health and Safety specifically for quad bike riders working on farms, known as the Shark X 16, was also close to completion.
"I've followed cattle at five kilometres an hour with a hot radiator fan blowing on you. I understand that completely but that doesn't excuse the fact that if you have staff on a quad bike, they need to have the best safety available including a helmet."
He cited the Queensland coroner's report into nine quad bike deaths which showed the proportion of quad bike fatalities in Australia was less than, but close to passenger vehicles in the road toll per 10,000 vehicles.
However, because so many of the accidents occur on farms or in workplaces (51 per cent of fatalities between 2011 and 2016), it had prompted an additional duty of care from authorities to solve the problem.
"And this is the problem we're coming across, talking to farmers they don't believe they need to be trained in quad bike riding because they've been doing it for 20 years," Mr Lawson said.
"The trick is to educate operators on what's actually causing these fatalities and how can you limit the risk to yourself or your employees or family."
Mr Lawson said many of the issues being debated would be the focus of a national quad bike safety conference in Cairns on March 30-31.
Topics: rural-youth, livestock, occupational-health-and-safety, cairns-4870, brisbane-4000
