" Quad Bike " ban !

The Federal government is considering passing a law banning children under sixteen from riding "Quad Bikes " - as all terrain vehicles are known - on farms or any other type of private property.  It has no plans to make wearing a helmet compulsory, or forcing Quad bike manufacturers to include roll bars in their design.

There have been fifteen Quad bike deaths this year and last year saw twenty-three fatalities.  The common thread is that Quad bikes are much heavier than a motorcycle and when used on slopes they have a tendency to roll - and the rider is often pinned underneath and either crushed or drowned if the accident happens in water.

This ban on children appears to be tackling the problem from the wrong end.   Quad bikes are the danger, irrespective of whether the rider is an adult or a child.   They can not be registered or legally used on a public road, hence the 220,000 already in Australia are used on private property - or illegally for fun on fire trails or beaches.

Placing a ban on child riders will probably be universally ignored.  We already have a problem with unregistered trail bikes buzzing around public land and the best efforts of the police have done nothing to curb this offence.   The strange thing is that these trail bikes are perfectly legal on private property and we are now proposing to let that legality continue - but ban kids from the four wheel version.

It would be a better idea to make the Quad bikes safe for all riders, and that requires just a simple law to make a roll bar mandatory for all such bikes imported and sold in Australia.  Existing laws make it necessary for riders of both motorbikes and bicycles to wear a safety helmet, and legislation should be amended to include Quad bikes in this requirement.

It would be ideal if such a law would make the owners of the 220,000 existing Quad bikes install a roll bar, but that is unlikely, but all things mechanical eventually wear out and if new machines are safer we will eventually improve the situation.

It seems that this new Federal law is a knee jerk reaction to pressure from child safety authorities.  There is little point in enacting a law that can not be enforced when the safety problem can be tackled by a simple import provision policed by our customs services.

Making Quad bikes safer will save lives !