UNSW online survey on ATV safety

Farmers and other workers who use ATVs are being invited to participate in a new online University of New South Wales (UNSW) survey to assist with research into the safety of their use in the workplace.

The independent Quad Bike Workplace Safety Survey is being undertaken by the Transport and Road Safety Research Centre at UNSW in response to a recommendation by a 2015 coronial inquiry in NSW into the deaths of 11 ATV riders in the state.

COMPLETE SURVEY HERE

ATV accidents are the leading cause of death on Australian farms, having overtaken tractor accidents more than five years ago.

Nine out of 10 ATV workplace deaths occur on farms, according to the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety.

“The tragic tide of death and serious injury affecting Australian farmers and other workers who use quad bikes needs to be stemmed,” says project leader UNSW Professor Raphael Grzebieta.

“We know farmers are mainly being killed by rollover crashes. A lot of them die simply because the weight of the quad bike stops them from being able to breathe.

“We need to understand how quad bike rollovers and other crashes occur, what injuries people sustain and how some people manage to escape injury in those crashes.

"The people who ride quad bikes for work are the only ones who can tell us what is happening out there in the real world.

“So we hope as many farmers and other workers as possible in NSW and across Australia will participate in the survey.”

The issue of ATV safety has been an ongoing one, with so-called Roll Over Protection Structures being pushed as panacea to save lives and reduce injuries, but the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, representing ATV manufacturers, has argued that the devices are not beneficial and may even cause more harm than good — striking riders or preventing riders separating from the vehicle in a crash.

Professor Grzebieta says: “Outcomes from this new UNSW study will answer some very important research questions about quad bike safety that can only be answered through a comprehensive survey of workplace quad bike users.

"While our research indicates overall benefits of such Operator Protection Devices, the best measure of their safety performance will come from this real world data.”