Quad bike makers abandon bid to block rollover protection demand

Honda and other quad bike makers have mounted a hasty retreat from a legal challenge to WorkSafe Victoria’s demand that quad bikes be fitted with rollover protection.

QUAD bike manufacturers have beaten a hasty retreat from a legal challenge to WorkSafe Victoria’s right to demand all employers buy a safer vehicle or fit approved rollover protection devices, where there is a risk of rollover.

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries backed landmark legal action by Euroa horse breeder Neville Murdoch, who rejected WorkSafe’s improvement notice to fit rollover or operator protective devices to six quad bikes on his Larneuk thoroughbred stud.

But just one week into a two-week Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal hearing the FCAI abandoned the case.

WorkSafe confirmed the hearing was originally expected to run until this Friday, but collapsed a week early.

Earlier in the week the FCAI’s barrister had tried to punch holes in WorkSafe’s expert witnesses’ research, including that of Prof Raphael Grzebieta, who completed extensive quad bike workplace safety surveys while at the University of NSW’s Transport and Road Safety unit.

The surveys included one into the impact of fitting OPDs to 100 quad bikes used by tourists at the Tangalooma Resort, on Moreton Island, Queensland, in 2005 that dramatically cut rollover injuries.

The FCAI’s barrister had challenged the validity of the Tangalooma survey and questioned other TARS research on Thursday.

But the barrister later told VCAT the FCAI was withdrawing its challenge, stunning witnesses and Mr Murdoch.

When contacted that afternoon Mr Murdoch said the FCAI had told him not to discuss the case with the media.

WorkSafe first flagged OPDs would become mandatory in early 2016, after it announced they were an “acceptable control measure” for reducing the risk of injury through quad bike roll overs.