Quad bikes a key occupational health and safety issue
In Australia, more than 64 per cent of quad bike deaths occur on farms and in the last 10 years there have been 130 farm-related quad bike fatalities across the country.
In New Zealand, five people (on average) are killed on farms and over 845 injuries are reported each year.
Accidents involving quad bikes continue to one of the major contributors to on-farm incident statistics.
Earlier this year the National Farmers Federation called on quad bike manufacturers to increase safety protection measures in the manufacture of the machines.
Some of the key elements that they considered relevant relate to the development of on-farm safety procedures like:
- Not overloading quad bikes
- Ensuring that quad bikes were used for intended purposes only
- Not allowing children under 16 to operate them
- Combining relevant training and safe work practices for farm workers
Last month WorkCover NSW publicly urged farmers and farm workers to make safety a priority following two fatalities involving a five year old passenger and a 26 year old farm manager. They are also currently working on a strategy to reduce fatalities and injuries from on-farm use of quad bikes that involves a $1.3 million quad bike research and testing project.
Just because workplaces are not in urban areas in construction sites, warehouses or manufacturing sites does not mean one can ignore safety roles, nor safety is irrelevant.
Safety Services Australia continues to work across many industry sectors to develop, implement and train people in all safe work methods and practices.
For further information contact Safety Services Australia on +61 2 9634 5912 or info@safetyservices.net.au
