Calls for quad bike law change

The motocross park where Amber Vincent died. Photo / Herald on Sunday

Calls from grieving parents of children killed on quad bikes to bring in new laws to reduce accident numbers are being backed by new research.

Two significant studies in academic journals this year have proposed legislation as the only real way to bring down the numbers of deaths and injuries.

They have highlighted the failure of the voluntary safety guidelines that are supported by farmers and government agencies to reduce the number of accidents on the country's estimated 100,000 quad bikes.

The call for laws governing three- and four-wheeled bikes has precedent after farmers were forced to accept earlier law changes banning kids from tractors.

Yet the research has not moved the Government. Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson said parents were clearly advised not to let children ride quad bikes. "The ultimate responsibility lies with the parents."

Amber Vincent, 6, was crushed last week under a quad bike she was riding at a recreational off-road motor park south of Auckland.

Research published this week in the New Zealand Medical Journal shows that 16 children were killed and at least 218 children needed hospital treatment after accidents on All-Terrain Vehicles (three- or four- wheel motorbikes) in six years.

The doctors, led by emergency medicine registrar Kate Anson, found two-thirds of the accidents would not have happened if voluntary safety guidelines had been followed.

Anson's paper asks: "Is the current high level of child death and injury acceptable to New Zealanders?"

The researchers say voluntary guidelines are "clearly widely ignored". They found more than half the children injured were aged 12 and under.

Anson's paper stated there was a "she'll be right" attitude from farmers, linked to fostering children's independence.

Overseas studies showed legislation had a limited - although measurable - effect. She said a law would "at least set a standard [at] point of sale and to parents and may be required to protect children from life-threatening injuries".

A stronger call for legislation emerged in the Social Policy Journal of New Zealand, in which Waikato University researcher Maxine Campbell said "urgent attention" needed to be given to reducing risks to rural children and that legislation was required.

Campbell said voluntary compliance was not working. Farmers would likely be upset by legislation, she added, but sticking to the existing voluntary guidelines would have little impact.

"Somebody has to pick this up," said Campbell. "Nothing will change without legislation. I can't see why there is this resistance - what is to be gained by keeping on letting these kids be killed?"

Roy Brittain, whose daughter Rebecca, 8, died in a quad bike accident, told last week of his frustration at politicians. "I don't know how many more children need to be crushed to death before they're considered to be dangerous."

And Liz Sefton, of Northland, who lost her 21-year-old son Edwin in a quad bike accident, plans to lobby MPs over bringing in laws to protect children.

She said voluntary guidelines should become law. "It must be mandatory."

Wilkinson applauded the work the Herald on Sunday was doing in investigating the danger of quad bikes.

But statistics from the Department of Labour showed the number of deaths had reduced in recent years, after the introduction of the voluntary guidelines, she claimed.

"Parents have a responsibility to ensure their children are safe, particularly on farms and quad bikes.

"The only way to absolutely guarantee that nobody dies from a quad bike accident again is to ban all quad bikes, and I'm not going to be banning all quad bikes."

Wilkinson said raising the awareness of dangers would reduce accident numbers. "Quad bikes are dangerous. Farms are dangerous places."

It appears that there is no accurate measure of the number of accidents.

Wilkinson partly based her assessment of the problem on casualty figures from the Department of Labour, which showed two people had died in the past six years. But medical researchers tracked more casualties, sourced from national health and hospital records.

Last year, two coroners called for rollbars and seatbelts to be fitted to quad bikes, only to be told they could make the bikes more dangerous.

'Why are so many of our kids dying?'

The mum of a child who died in a quad bike accident says it will take the death of a politician's child to bring in necessary laws.

"It's like someone put their hand in our chest and grabbed our heart and pulled it out," said Jo Apaapa of the death of daughter Iritana, 14.

"Unless something like this happens to one of those politicians, nothing will be done."

Apaapa said arguments around the difficulty policing the law were irrelevant. She said if prosecutions were taken following accidents, it would make others in responsible positions take notice.

"Why are so many of our kids dying? Nobody under the age of 16 should be on them. The law has got to change."

Apaapa said she knew the pain Amber Vincent's family was feeling.

"Their world will be in turmoil at the moment. You never get over it but you learn to cope with it."