Farmsafe Australia renews calls for quad bike manufacturers to back mandatory crush protection

Nine quad bike fatalities have already been recorded this year, devastating figures released today show.

NINE lives have been lost in quad bike accidents already this year – almost as many as there were for all of 2019.

New analysis to be released today reveals the worrying upward trend, showing there have been nine deaths and 27 injuries due to quad bikes between January and June, compared with 11 deaths and 44 injuries across all of last year.

The devastating figures, compiled in a new Farmsafe Australia report, have prompted a renewed plea for manufacturers to heed new legislation requiring mandatory crush protection for quad bikes.

“I’ll be the first to tell you how valuable the quad bike is to Australian farmers. But no tool is worth as much as a human life,” Farmsafe chair Charles Armstrong stated in the report.

“I am genuinely saddened by the companies threatening to pull out of the Australian market due to the impending legislation and it is alarming that the wellbeing of their customers is not sufficient motivation for change.”

The Safer Farms 2020 Agricultural Injury and Fatality Report shows quad bikes were involved in the vast majority of incidents over the past 18 months, accounting for 22 per cent of farm deaths and 35 per cent of injuries.

The Federal Government introduced new laws in October last year making crush protection on quad bikes mandatory.

Manufacturers have two years to comply but some have said they would instead withdraw from the market.

The report showed across all causes 10 lives have been lost on Victorian farms between January and June this year, compared with 12 deaths for all of 2019.

Australia-wide, there have been 33 farm deaths so far this year, and 71 non-fatal injuries, with the half-yearly total appearing to put the nation on track to match the 58 deaths and 133 injuries recorded in 2019.

The report’s release coincides with Farm Safety Week, and the launch of a revamped Farmsafe Australia, including a virtual conference scheduled for November.