Most farms today have one if not two quads; they are essential to on-farm management. They are greatly versatile and simple to operate.
Unfortunately these attributes encourage some operators to push the limits. No quad is designed to pull loads several times its weight such as baleage. It can, but the risk factor increases dramatically.
Quads can also traverse amazingly steep country. But in these potentially dangerous conditions some sort of training should be mandatory for the unskilled and/or inexperienced. Similarly, wearing helmets and fitting roll bars will become compulsory.
Helmets are something the older generations don’t want to know about. They are sure to be resisted or ignored. So people in charge are likely to adhere to that wise saying from chairman Mao Zedong, “indoctrination is most successful when working with the young”.
Farmers know they are legally responsible for the health and safety of their staff. For the sake of young riders especially, officials from the Department of Labour can include quad safety on their check lists. The death of a young person on a quad is a tragedy – more so when it could have been avoided.
Training and safety requirements will eventually become accepted, like tractor safety frames. I recall an occasion when a contractor turned up wearing ear muffs for driving his tractor. Another employee referred to him as a wimp. The muffs disappeared. Today all those wimps probably still have good hearing!
The quad has played a huge role in the farm transport evolution, certainly taking out the horse. However, the early bikes were three wheelers and extraordinarily dangerous. But they still had a convenience and being something of a big toy made them attractive to farmers.
The late west Otago doctor Peter Snow began a campaign to get rid of or modify trikes because they were lethal. Snow accepted he was seen as a spoil-sport, but he was the one who stitched riders’ skin and flesh back together.
About then, the early 1980s, the quad came on the market. It was seen as a breakthrough even though built for the American hunting/recreational market. It had four wheels, and looked as if it could readily be adapted for New Zealand farming.
Almost overnight this mini-tractor added a new dimension to farming. Here was a machine that could go anywhere, at first called ‘all terrain vehicle’ (ATV).
Part of the problem was the perception these bikes were error-tolerant. This was not so. Going from a recreational machine to a farm workhorse the quad had big limitations, especially load carrying. But the quad took over from the horse, the motorbike and the three wheeler.
As a main player in the transport revolution, the quad by the 1980s was here to stay. By this time there was a growing realisation safety issues could not be ignored. With the huge growth in numbers, quads have almost become invincible. With the extra numbers came the inevitable increase in accidents.
It’s interesting to note that more older riders are being injured and are taking longer to recover. Researchers suggest older people don’t bounce back like younger riders. These older riders were more likely to have learnt quad riding by trial and error.
As a younger generation comes into power there will be more research and safety changes. These are already happening.
• John Stirling is a south Otago farmer who formerly was agricultural editor of the Otago Daily Times.
