New regulations create fresh safety concerns

October 25, 2021

Colac district farmers say freshly implemented quad bike safety regulations could expose workers to new dangers in coming years.

Leading manufacturers have pulled out of the Australian market in response to new rules now in effect, which mean all quad bikes sold in Australia must have a rollbar – or operator protection device – fitted or integrated into its design.

But big-name manufacturers have refused to re-engineer their products for Australia, which makes up about three per cent of the global market, leaving farmers frustrated at the policy.

Local agriculturalists and retailers say the change has left farmers with a no-win choice between inferior bike brands or to continue riding ageing equipment well past its use-by date.

Dairy farmer Craig Dwyer has always preferred Honda quads for his work at Bullaharre, just east of Cobden.

But the Japanese manufacturer was among a host of major brands that announced last year it would stop supplying quad bikes to Australia in response to the federal regulations.

“We chew through a bike in about three years here, and we’ve always just bought Hondas,” Mr Dwyer said.

“What we’ll do is we’ll just keep our Hondas going for as long as possible, which is less than ideal because you’re going to have older bikes becoming less safe as they age.”

Colac district farmers said that the OPDs hurt the all-terrain vehicles’ usability, including preventing them from fitting beneath cattle underpasses.

There’s also concern that lesser-known brands would struggle to cope with south-west Victorian terrain and require replacement sooner than their predecessors.

Mr Dwyer’s opposition to the rollbar regulations isn’t because of a disregard for safety, with his family still dealing with the consequences of a farm accident.

His sister went into a 17-day induced coma following a horror crash that has left her with ongoing mobility issues from her injuries.

“It was nothing to do with rollovers; she made a poor decision to try and get ahead of some cows, hit a culvert and wrapped herself around a strainer post,” Mr Dwyer said.

“A rollbar was never going to fix that.”

Farmers could also bear a financial burden from the change.

Mr Dwyer’s calf rearing set-ups are geared towards the ATVs, and he estimated a shift to side-by-side buggies would cost at least $50,000.

The regulations have also begun to impact quad bike retailers, who have started a necessary shift to new, unfamiliar products that are compliant.

Colac Motorcycles’ David Wade said the withdrawal of Japanese companies Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki, and American makers Polaris and Can Am, had wiped out more than 90 per cent of the Australian market and mounted pressure on regional stores.

“It’s going to put a big dint in thousands of rural motorcycle businesses in Australia,” he said.

“I don’t know what that will equate to in jobs, but it would have to be a fair amount.”

Meanwhile, Mr Wade feared that many farmers across the district would shun new ATVs now their trusted brands were unavailable, potentially creating added safety risks from using old gear.

“We’re going to be fixing machines that should have been thrown on the scrapheap 20 years ago,” he said.

The rules came following an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recommendation in 2018.

The new regulations are designed to improve safety on farms, which are one of Australia’s deadliest workplaces and have ATV rollovers as their leading cause of injury and death.

The Victorian and National farming federations have backed the regulations to improve safety.

Government figures said 163 people died in quad-bike incidents since 2011 across Australia, 60 per cent of which were rollovers.

But the report relied on epidemiological data including hospital admissions, which local industry figures claim is unreliable because of medical professionals’ potential inexperience with farm machinery that could result in misclassifications of vehicles.

Opponents also argue that quad bikes’ injury and death figures are due to their higher prevalence as farmers’ preferred vehicle rather than increased risk.

An ACCC recommendation in 2019 also found support from farmers and retailers to mandate helmets and training for quad bike users, and to ban children from using the vehicles.

But the watchdog failed to include these measures in its recommendation, indicating that this was an issue for state governments.

Fatality victims failed to wear helmets in 84 per cent of incidents that the watchdog analysed, while children under 16 accounted for 18 deaths from 2011 to 2018, including six who were passengers.

The first stage of changes, including requirements for warning labels and customer information from manufacturers, took effect in October last year, before rules took full effect this month.