Quad bike safety compliance improves

Ninety-four percent of new quad bikes assessed by Australia’s consumer law regulators have been compliant with the national safety standard that has been in force since October 2021, a nationwide surveillance program has found.

That is a ten per cent improvement from the last surveillance that was conducted last year.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), in conjunction with state and territory consumer protection and work health and safety agencies, have recently conducted a second annual round of surveillance activities, inspecting over 440 quad bike dealers in the process.

Manufacturers and dealers were warned where minor non-compliance issues were found, but investigations continue into a small number of instances where potentially serious non-compliance was identified, including in relation to the safety of the operator protection devices (OPDs).

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“It’s encouraging to see compliance with the standard has improved from 84 per cent in 2021 to 94 per cent this year," said ACCC Deputy Chair, Mick Keogh.

"It shows that manufacturers and dealers are taking their obligations seriously and have co-operated with our investigations, taking steps to fix problems when necessary.

“Where we found non-compliance, it was largely due to quad bikes being displayed at the point of sale without age warning labels, rollover warning labels, lateral roll stability tags or owner manuals.”

Keogh urges Australians to continue heeding quad bike safety advice and take extra care in areas that have been impacted by recent heavy rain and flooding.

"Sadly, we see more quad bike accidents happen during the summer holiday period so now is the time to make sure your quad bike is safe, including by fitting operator protection devices,” he said.

Despite vehement protest from representative body, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, over the merits of OPDs, the Consumer Goods (Quad Bikes) Safety Standard 2019 was introduced over two stages, starting in October 2020.

The second and more stringent step in October 2021 required the universal fitment of OPDs on all new general-use adult-sized quads, as well as the machines being required to meet minimum lateral and pitch stability standards.

As a result, most ATV manufacturers – sticking to their oft-mentioned pledges – have now departed the local market, including Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Polaris and Can-Am – leaving Chinese brand CFMOTO as the undisputed market leader.

There have been 180 deaths associated with the use of quad bikes since 2011. The number of deaths has reduced significantly since 2020 when there were 24 lives lost in quad bike incidents, to 11 in 2021 and nine so far this year.