New safety rules begin after spate of quad bike deaths

New quad bike safety regulations recommended by an ACCC inquiry will begin on this week, following four ATV death in Queensland in the last two months.

Four Queenslanders have died in a shocking spate of quad bike-related deaths as new safety regulations mandating roll bars hope to reel in the needless toll.

From Monday, all new and imported second-hand quad bikes will be required to have rollover protection devices as part of new regulations sparked by an ACCC inquiry.

So far this year there have been nine deaths in Australia to ATV crashes and Queensland has lost four people in the past two months and five people since January 1 – more than half the country’s toll.

The deaths include six-year-old Charlotte Bowden who was killed when the small quad bike she was riding on a private property crashed into the Maroochy River on September 23, trapping her underneath.

News of Charlotte’s death came days after police confirmed Allan ‘Kiwi’ Andrew died in a quad bike rollover on a private property near Gladstone.

Allan ’Kiwi’ Andrew was killed in a quad bike rollover last month.

Tragically, 14-year-old St Brendan’s College student Mitchell Norris died when his quad bike rolled on his family’s property near Yeppoon on August 27.

ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh said six people are taken to emergency departments across the country every day because of quad bike incidents which were the “most significant” cause of farm injuries.

Mr Keogh said the ACCC’s two-year inquiry found that roll overs were blamed for 65 per cent of fatalities and that the bikes’ “inherent instability” was the major issue.

“We are not discounting that keeping kids off adult quad bikes, training and helmets are important – but over 60 per cent of fatalities are persons aged over 35,” he said.

“So it’s not inexperience, most people have been riding for quite some time so it’s the inherent instability that we concluded was the issue.”

The changes – that also mandate a minimum stability requirement – are the second stage of the new regulations that began in October last year with warning labels.

The new quad bike safety laws have not been without contention.

Several overseas manufacturers have strongly resisted the roll bar mandate and said they would withdraw from the Australian market.

But Mr Keogh said Queenslanders only had to compare its fatality rate with southern states, which have implemented rebates programs to roll bars, to understand the importance of the changes.

“It will take a while for the rest of the current fleet to be replaced with the safer versions but we’re pretty confident that we’ll start to see a gradual decline in the toll associated with quad bikes,” Mr Keogh said.

RACQ Capricorn Helicopter Rescue Service has completed 22 quad bike related missions and

67 rural missions involving quad bikes, horse falls, ATV accidents, cattle yard incidents, accidents involving cattle themselves, and farm accidents among others in the last 12 months.

Originally published as New safety rules begin after spate of quad bike deaths