Roll cages make them a nuisance & unusable for carrying stuff on them. Helmets? The young blokes wouldn’t wear them….what can you do? Belts? A hazard that would pin you in the rare event of a roll.

They generally replaced the Landrovers & two wheel farm bikes.

nasska, you forgot to mention that other antiquated concept….. walking!

…” when did they first start appearing? What did they replace?”……

In the early/mid 80′s they were gaining real market penetration although they were fairly low powered & uncomfortable. Early models were only 2WD but developments & innovations happened quickly.

They generally replaced the Landrovers & two wheel farm bikes.

It would be nice if the goons with lawmaking powers actually bother to listen to anyone who actually knows about quads.

How many quads are there in NZ?

And I’d be interested in their history… when did they first start appearing? What did they replace?

Only bad ideas require the force of the armed State to support them.

How many die from head injuries alone?

Too often these laws are imposed on us in an appeal to the emotion to “do something” without any supporting evidence. Cycle helmets are a great example. This absurd law was imposed on us all because some grieving crazy woman’s kid had a knock to the head. Actual studies show cycle helmets in a different light.

Some cockies nearly have to get the seat of their bike surgically removed from their arse at the end of a long day. Rough estimates for sheep & beef are 10km for each hour of use.

I’m not far from the Forest park but I don’t share any common boundary with it.

3300 hrs/3/365 = 3 hrs a day 7 days a week. Its a lot.

The freaking rescue chopper kept me awake but the search light they were using made us wonder if a bad bad bad man was running loose!

I know I have to identify hazards & eliminate them etc but I was lead to believe that worksafe practises & safety equipment was the responsibility of the contractors. It’s no big deal in my case as the only outside contractors I use are for spreading & shearing & they seem to have their ducks in a row.

I will check though.

Darwinian solutions.
Stupid people kill themselves.
So what!

Na its usually a badly broken leg or pelvis….

The three wheelers were lethal…..having to lean in the opposite direction to break ground contact with the inside rear wheel when turning went against everything you were taught to do when learning to ride a bike.

One of the things overlooked when people start rabbiting on about quad safety is the amount of time farmers & their employees spend on the things. A quad off a sheep/beef farm has probably travelled 25/30,000Kms in three years….dairy farmers do considerably less but still spend a large part of their working day on the machine. It stands to reason that there will be accidents & occasional fatalities but the same can be said for the horses that preceded them.

Rollbars will get caught up in overhanging scrub & seatbelts will be worse than bloody useless. The best advice if things start to go pear shaped on a bike or quad is usually to bail off…..it’s hard enough to do without having to uncouple a seat belt at the same time. In any case most serious injuries/fatalities are when the bike (250/300kg) comes down on top of you.

The whole half witted initiatives are being driven by idiot ‘mummy knows best’ coroners & public servants rubbing their slimy little hands together at the thought of being able to stick their officious noses into another aspect of business life.

It’s your workplace so you can (and it seems if you are big enough will) be held accountable for contractors’ employees.