Coroner’s urgent recommendations after releasing the findings into a 14-year-old girl’s death

There have been renewed calls for tighter regulations of ATVs after a coroner’s findings into a 14-year-old girl’s death at Bridgewater last year. The changes being recommended.

A Polaris 4x4 Ranger like this one was involved in a fatal crash at Bridgewater.

Wearing a seat belt would have saved the life of a teenage girl who died in an ATV crash on a property near Bridgewater last year, a coroner has ruled.

Coroner Robert Webster said the failure to wear a seat belt was the “single most important factor” leading to the death of a 14-year old girl when she was flung from the ATV she lost control of on a private bush block.

“If she had worn a seatbelt she would not have been ejected from the vehicle,” Coroner Webster said in his report into the fatal crash, which was published on Friday.

“She would have remained within the cabin of the ATV and she would have been protected by it,”

The teenager, who could not be identified because she was a minor at the time of her death, was driving a neighbour’s Polaris Ranger ATV on a property on Boyer Rd, Bridgewater, with a passenger on February 13 2023.

A girl died in a crash on a private property on Boyer Rd Bridgewater. Picture: Google Maps

She had driven the ATV several times since 2021 and it had no side doors, no lights and no right passenger side seatbelt, the report said.

Neither the driver nor the passenger were wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.

The passenger’s affidavit said the driver wanted to do some “donuts” around trees and a metal frame on a downhill slope on a paddock on the property.

The passenger says she looked at the driver who appeared to have lost control as she was “frantically” trying to steer the buggy before the passenger remembers the buggy spinning “really fast, even rolling”.

The driver was ejected through the gap where the driver’s door would have been while the passenger remained in the vehicle as it spun and rolled, before also being ejected from where the passenger side door would have been.

The passenger administered first aid before the arrival of several emergency services personnel, including a helicopter with a doctor and paramedic pilot, but “despite the provision of extensive treatment, [she] could not be saved,” the coroner’s report said.

A Paramedic and doctor were flown in but unable to save the life of a 14-year-old girl who died in an ATV crash. Picture: Linda Higginson

Mr Webster said the failure to wear a seatbelt was the most important factor and if cage nets or doors, which are expressly recommended for use in the ATV operators manual, were in place the teenager would not have been thrown from the cabin and “therefore she probably would not have sustained fatal injuries”.

In his findings, Coroner Webster was recommending urgent consideration be given to the introduction of legislation that would introduce age limits on ATVs and quad bikes.

He also recommended the introduction of mandatory training and licensing of all people using quad bikes.

Coroner Webster said Australian coroners had investigated many deaths associated with ATVs or quad bikes for many years and pointed to the “very comprehensive” findings after an inquest in Tasmania into seven quad bike-related deaths in 2017.

He said two of the eight recommendations directed towards reducing further injuries and death were relevant to this case, including the recommendation to introduce an age limit on ATV and quad bike riders.

“While the government in its press release in 2020 appears to agree with the age restrictions recommended by Coroner Cooper there has been no legislation passed to give those recommendations the force of law,” the report said.

Coroner Webster outlined several changes that have resulted in reform since Coroner Simon Cooper handed down his 2017 findings, but said further reforms should be made.

Originally published as Coroner’s urgent recommendations after releasing the findings into a 14-year-old girl’s death