The legal loophole in crush protection for quad bikes

The number of on farm deaths has surged in 2024. It comes as The Weekly Times reveals a crush protection inconsistency in the second hand quad bike and ATV market.

A gaping hole in mandatory standards for quad bikes means only new or imported second-hand quad bikes must be fitted with the life-saving rollover protection devices.

It comes as preliminary farm death figures for 2024 showed the number of people – children included – killed on farm has doubled in the past 12 months.

While it is mandatory for new quad bikes to be sold with crush protection, last week The Weekly Times revealed it did not breach Australian Consumer Law to remove them.

And an investigation by The Weekly Times of second-hand quad bike sales shows few are being sold with operator protection devices, also known as rollover protection.

Of the quad bikes being offered on Facebook Marketplace on Monday within a 500km vicinity of Melbourne, just one had an OPD. And of 13 listed quad bikes for sale on Gumtree within 100km of Melbourne, only one had a visible OPD fitted.

There is no mention of mandatory standards for second-hand quad bikes for sale that are not imported in the 2019 legislation and simply sold by owners in Australia.

FarmSafe Australia chair Felicity Richards said a back-of-the-envelope calculation of the on-farm deaths in the past 12 months showed 64 people – including children – had died during 2024, up from 33 in 2023, with both quad bikes and side-by-side vehicles over-represented in the figures.

“It’s hard not to talk in cliches but it’s so heartbreaking … for some reason agriculture is flying under the radar where I don’t think it would be if this was in construction, or mining,” she said.

Ms Richards said from a legislative perspective, any imported second-hand vehicle had to have an OPD installed, but there was no such requirement with farm-to-farm sales.

She said it was time producers understood the severity of not making on-farm workplace safety a priority.

Farm leaders are calling for producers to step up on farm safety, as the number of on farm deaths for 2024 climbs.

“There’s no way one could argue that not having an OPD on a quad bike isn’t putting their workers and themselves at risk. It’s hard to argue you’re providing a healthy and safe workplace if you’re not ensuring an OPD is fitted, given how dangerous we know rollovers on quads can be,” Ms Richards said.

“There was a time, may 10 years ago, when you could have thought that but I don’t think you can argue that anymore.”

National Farmers’ Federation president David Jochinke said while the organisation would consider a proposal to make crush protection mandatory on second hand vehicles, there were already laws which covered fitting of crush protection in terms of workplace safety.

“We are conscious that while the right laws will help, ultimately it’s a change in safety culture and practice which makes the difference,” Mr Jochinke said.