Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland
17 JULY 2017

Quad Bikes Become the Latest Academic Bogeyman

New Zealand First says that while there’s no doubt full-sized quad bikes are dangerous in the wrong hands, or if used by the wrong age group, the latest academic call is dull-headed.

“Quad bikes are mostly farm vehicles but many of the deaths attributed to them are off-farm,” says the Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First and Member of Parliament for Northland.

“Last year 14 people died in quad bike accidents but half of these weren’t on-farm.

“And while each death is a tragedy at least we’ve seen the farm quad bike toll gradually fall – from nine deaths in 2014/15, to seven in 2015/16 and in 2016/17 to24 May, it totalled four.

“What these academics analysing their data in ivory towers seem to miss is ground truthing. It isn’t the ratio of deaths per machine on what has become the modern horse for many a farmer, but the ratio of deaths for each hour that farmers spend on them.

“Over 2016/17 to 24 May, there were eight tractor deaths, a doubling on the previous year, but no one in their right mind is suggesting tractors be axed. And what about the two-deaths in 2015/16 on the supposedly safer but miniscule number of side-by-side vehicles?

“Academics are better to investigate how the pen-pushers enabled by this so-called National government are affecting real-world user training. It’s bizarre that quad bikes can carry all kinds of shifting loads but National’s bureaucrats ban pillion passengers,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

PQ 4725 (2017) from questions asked by the Rt Hon Winston Peters: Fatalities reported to WorkSafe New Zealand in the agriculture, forestry, and fishing (AFF06, ANZSIC06 Lvl1) industries

N.B. This does not include incidents that did not take place while undertaking a work activity or which may have been reported to another regulator.

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