New laws ban young children from quads in Qld
AS OF today, children under the age of eight will be prohibited from riding quad bikes and utility off-road vehicles being used on roads
Gympie
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CHILDREN under the age of eight will be prohibited from riding quad bikes and utility off-road vehicles being used on roads as of tomorrow, as will any child of any age who is unable to sit with their feet flat on the floor and hands on the handholds.
CLICK HERE: Gympie has had countless quad bike crashes
The new laws coming into effect today in Queensland are a direct response to the state's over-representation in the annual quad bike death toll.
Within the Gympie region, quad bikes have taken their toll, resulting in multiple accidents with serious injury and some deaths. Just last month a Federal woman in her 50s was fatally injured when the quad bike she was riding rolled on a property at Middle Creek.
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Forensic crash investigator Andrew Holding has attended his share of horror quad bike crashes in this region and has welcomed the tougher laws.
"In the past there have been a number of crashes, even on private land involving children riding and adults doubling children,” Sgt Holding said.
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As police officer who has attended quad bike fatalities and serious crashes where people have not worn helmets, he yesterday urged people to wear all the required safety equipment, even if they are just in a paddock.
"They're quads - they're not toys - they're machinery and no different to a tractor,” he said.
"Riding quad bikes has the potential, if not ridden safely, to be deadly.
"They seem to have a high centre of gravity - they roll quite easily even on flat ground - if you're fast and turn too quickly.”
The requirement for quad bike operators or utility off-road vehicle and their passengers to wear a motorcycle helmet will be also legislated in the Transport Operations (Road Use Management-Road Rules) Regulation 2009 starting this month.
Those who will not comply with the mandatory helmet requirements will face a $365 fine and the incursion of three demerit points.
Per Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, the new requirements apply on roads and road related areas only.
Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has said there will still be no exemptions from wearing an approved motorcycle helmet for quad bike riders and passengers.
Exemptions from wearing an approved motorcycle helmet still apply for the driver and passengers of utility off-road vehicles being operated under conditional registration code LO3, provided the vehicle has factory fitted seatbelts and a roll over protection system, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland said in a statement.
Regular, full faced motorcycle helmets can be impractical for farm tasks at low speeds, so a major quad bike distributor has developed a helmet specifically for quad bike use that will be available in the coming months.
The Shark brand helmet is made for Australian conditions and is lightweight, cooler and does not impact vision or hearing.
Since January 2001, there have been more than 230 quad bike-related fatalities in Australia, which is approximately 15 deaths a year. Of these, 69 occurred in Queensland (about 30%), which is the highest fatality rate across all Australian jurisdictions.
Of the 69 Queensland fatalities, 42 were recreational incidents, for example, an operator falling off a quad bike while on a hunting expedition. The remaining 27 incidents were work-related, for example, an operator losing control of a quad bike while mustering. About 20% of the fatalities were children under the age of 16.
More than 7900 people were admitted to hospitals across Australia between 2003 and 2011-12. This is about 1000 hospitalisations a year or three hospitalisations a day; a trend which appears to be increasing in correlation with quad bike sales data.
Queensland has consistently had the highest number of annual hospital admissions compared to other states.
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