Quad safety promoted as part of the product
It's hard to believe that quad bikes or ATVs have been around for about 50 years – even longer if you add in the balloon-tyred trikes that first appeared in the Bond movie Moonraker.
The farm quad industry and its regulators are at odds over the fitting of rollover devices on these machines.
On the eve of Fieldays, Worksafe NZ recommended – contrary to the advice of most manufacturers -- that all quads be fitted with crush protection devices (CPDs).
Then ACC said it will subsidise, by $180, farmers’ purchases of two brands of CPDs.
But Motor Industry Association (MIA) chief executive David Crawford says international research shows no credible evidence that CPDs prevent injuries. He claims government agencies’ support for fitting untested CPDs to quads amounts to an experiment with farmers’ lives.
“On the contrary, research from Australia reveals that a serious accident resulting in hospitalisation is more likely to occur if a CPD is fitted to a quad,” he told Rural News.
Crawford says government officials must take time to analyse the data before rushing to draft ill-informed policies.
In a fact sheet, WorkSafe/ACC recommends farmers buy a CPD that is professionally designed and manufactured. It also says these must be installed according to the CPD manufacturer’s instructions.
But these instructions contradict those of quad manufacturers, who recommend against fitting such devices.
Crawford says this is a concern in that MIA “does not advise the retro-fitting of CPDs on quads, which are not designed for them by the manufacturers”.
“This is not safe practice. The MIA is a safety first organisation and for some time we’ve been asking the government to regulate and promote simple evidence-based safety measures.”
Crawford says the MIA wants the wearing of safety helmets to be made mandatory, children to be banned from riding adult size quads and passengers to be banned on single seat quads.
“We’d also like to see improvements and more opportunities in rider training. Research in the US shows a big drop in quad fatalities since 1999 linked to increased use of helmets and restrictions on children riding,” Crawford said.
Quad fatalities halved between 1999 and 2011, and Crawford says this is strongly linked to riders’ behaviour changes.
“There were no engineering changes such as CPDs during this time.
In NZ we’d like to see sensible, proven safety solutions and would welcome the opportunity for further discussions with the government.”
The WorkSafe/ACC fact sheet says: “In future, WorkSafe is likely to make CPDs a requirement and will take enforcement action if necessary”.
Many farmers around the country are taking advantage of the high dairy payout to get maximum production out of their cows.
In 2015, the signing of a joint venture between St Peter's School, Cambridge, and Lincoln University saw the start of an exciting new chapter for Owl Farm as the first demonstration dairy farm in the North Island. Ten years on, the joint venture is still going strong.
Sheep milk processor Maui Milk is on track to record average ewe production of 500 litres by 2030, says outgoing chief executive Greg Hamill.
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton is calling for cross-party consensus on the country's overarching environmental goals.
Changes to New Zealand’s postal service has left rural communities disappointed.
Alliance is urging its farmer-shareholders to have their say on the proposed $250 million strategic investment partnership with Dawn Meats Group.
OPINION: Ageing lefty Chris Trotter reckons that the decision to delay recognition of Palestinian statehood is more than just a fit…
OPINION: A mate of yours truly recently met someone at a BBQ who works at a big consulting firm who spent…