Subscribe to RSSAnother Farm Quad Death
Another farm quad bike death today, days after a government campaign was launched.
In Cape Foulwind, Buller, a 17 year female farm hand employee drove to a remote part of the farm on a quad bike towing a trailer of fertiliser.
Several hours later fellow workers on the farm noticed her missing. They conducted a search and located her this afternoon.
She was found pinned under the overturned quad bike in a hill area of the farm and died at the scene.
The latest death comes only days after the minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson launched a campaign aimed at reducing serious injuries and deaths on farms from quad bike accidents. citing that every year on average five people die and 850 are injured on farms riding quad bikes.
This campaign will promote four basic safety steps that can prevent injuries. Wear a helmet, ensure riders are trained /experienced, don’t let children ride adult quad bikes (over 90cc) and choose the right vehicle for the job - pay close attention to what your quad bike owner’s manual says about carrying passengers, and the maximum towing and carrying limits.
She said farmers who don’t follow these safety steps risk penalties under the Health and Safety in Employment Act if someone working on their farm is seriously injured or killed.
3 Comments
“citing that every year on average five people die”
Can we get SOME context on this stuff from them? I mean, I don’t see them spearheading any pedestrian and cyclist safety initiatives recently, and car deaths are also a bit higher than 5 a year.
What are the actual risks, as in per hour of use, or per km travelled? I assume they are more dangerous, but are they substantially so?
Unfortunately calculating injury rates is very difficult, as there are no regularly collected data on how regularly and for how long people ride quads.
We have tried to get funding to undertake a baseline study to calculate this (in Victoria), but like anything similar no one is interested in funding it, because observation studies of usage don’t win political points.
Based on the little data we have on usage levels, it appears the death rate for quad bike usage is higher than any other vehicle or piece of equipment used on farms.
Fair enough comment, Nick.