FarmSafe New Zealand chairman Charlie Pedersen said that while quad bikes were a very useful tool for the agricultural industry, a charge of attitude towards safety was needed - beginning with the wearing of helmets.
Last week FarmSafe gave 100 Telford students a helmet each and hoped they would continue to use them while riding quad bikes when they joined the workforce.
''If we can stop one head injury with a $129 helmet ... then it's an absolute no-brainer.''
He hoped wearing helmets down on the farm would become the norm.
Mr Pedersen said while there was no specific law stating helmets should be worn while riding farm bikes, the Health and Safety in Employment Act made it ''virtually illegal'' to ride a quad bike without a helmet.
Telford director Charley Lamb said wearing a helmet while using quad bikes had been ''common practice'' at the former rural polytechnic for the past five years.
Acting head of school Roy Gawn said Telford trained its students to wear helmets while on quad bikes and motorbikes.
''It just becomes the normal thing to do.''
In 2010, the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment launched its Quad Bike Safety project and it is now in its second year of enforcement.
Health and safety inspectors visit farms nationwide to check compliance with the Quad Bike Safety Guidelines and the Health and Safety in Employment Act.
The ministry says there are four basic rules that should be followed: riders should be trained, they should choose the right vehicle, they should wear a helmet, and children should not be allowed on adult machines.
When quad bikes are being used for work purposes - as they are on farms - they are covered by the Health and Safety in Employment Act. It requires employers to take ''all practicable steps'' to prevent employees and others from being harmed in their workplace.
For farm quad bikes, these steps would include following the manufacturers' operating instructions, which are in the owner's manual that comes with every bike. All manufacturers recommend
helmets should be worn.
Earlier this year, Craggy Range vineyard in Martinborough was fined $36,000 and ordered to pay $6500 reparation for a breach of the Health and Safety in Employment Act after a contract worker fractured his arm last year when he was thrown off the back of a quad bike and run over by the trailer being towed by the bike
In 2011, Farmsafe and Agriculture ITO (AgITO) launched another initiative to help teach safer riding practices - the quad bike farm licence.
The licence involves a practical on-the-job training package that covers safe quad bike riding practices as well as teaching participants to effectively identify, minimise and isolate potential bike-riding hazards and make safe riding decisions.
''We decided we want ... people to be as safe as they can on farms,'' Mr Pedersen said.
FarmSafe is an industry-generated initiative governed by representatives of the agriculture and horticulture sectors and AgITO (now PrimaryITO), Agriculture New Zealand and Telford, a division of Lincoln University.
Quad bike accidents
- ACC-accepted claims resulting from quad bike accidents on farms fell from 732 in 2005-06 to 625 in 2011-12
- In 2012, ACC paid out more than $1.8 million in accident claims involving quad bikes.
- Quad bikes are responsible for about 28% of all work-related farm deaths.
- In 40% of the fatal farm quad bike accidents investigated by the former Department of Labour between 2000 and 2008, the victim had suffered some level of head injury.
Source: Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment.
