Quad Bike Injuries

Data Request Date: 23/3/2015

Data Provided: 23/3/2015

Requested by: Dr John Crozier, Professor Kate Curtis

Ethics Approval: Not required, aggregate non-identifiable data supplied

In 2015 the ATR provided data on the number of quad-bike injuries between 2010 and 2012. The requested data was used in RACS Joint inquests into deaths involving the use of quad bikes and related vehicles, NSW Crown Solicitors Office. The data showed that that major injuries from quad bikes rose from 26 in 2010 to 51 in 2012. Of the 111 major injuries which occurred from 2010-2012, more than a quarter of the riders were under 25 years of age.

Using this evidence and considering many other sources, RACS made three main recommendations.

  • The need for improvements in stability, handling and rollover safety, and the development of an Australasian New Quad Bike Assessment Program, identical to the ANCAP safety rating.

  • Consider all available strategies to prohibit children under the age of 16 from riding adult quad bikes.

  • Make quad bike handling training mandatory for all new owners.

RACS also made the consideration that “Maintaining funding for the Australian Trauma Registry is vital if policy makers are to monitor the significance of the threat and develop a strategy to prevent unnecessary fatalities and injuries from quad bike accidents. It would be useful if the registry included a specific coding for quad bike injuries.”

For more information on Quad Bike Safety Research please see linked video here.

ATR quad bike data was cited in the following:

STATE CORONER’S COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES into the death of nine quad bike deaths