Injured quad bike rider, 78, crawls 100m to get neighbour to call for help

A 78-year-old man had to crawl 100m in order to alert his neighbour to call the ambulance after suffering a serious head injury after a quad bike crash.

After suffering a serious head injury on a quad bike a 78-year-old man had to crawl 100 metres to tell his neighbour to call for an ambulance.

The Waikato Westpac Rescue Helicopter was dispatched at 11.30am today to a quad bike accident at Marakopa, south of Kawhia.

"Unfortunately it took several hours for the alarm to be raised as the man's condition meant he had to crawl 100m before he could get a neighbour's attention," a Westpac Rescue Helicopter spokesperson said.

He was flown to Waikato Hospital for treatment.

From the first day of this year contractors for primary industry services company OSPRI are not permitted to operate or ride on a quad bike.

"We want our workers to go home safely every day, and our focus is on reducing the potential for death or serious injury," OSPRI chief executive Michelle Edge said.

In 2017 an OSPRI worker was killed in a quad bike accident while operating the vehicle on a farm.

The injury follows a coroner's warning last year that the Government needed to do more to address the high numbers of quad bike deaths in New Zealand.

It was "imperative" further work be done by the Government to address New Zealand's unacceptably high number of quad bike deaths and serious injuries, Coroner Brigitte Windley said.

"Despite the public attention quad bike deaths have received, and the ongoing work done by government agencies such as WorkSafe and ACC, with input and support from industry organisations, quad bike deaths were reported to have reached a record high in 2016," she said in her finding.

Despite a quad bike safety campaign started by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment in 2010 there were 14 quad bike deaths by October 2016 although not all were at workplaces.

Worksafe said about 850 people were injured riding quad bikes on farms every year and five people died.