Coroner recommends mandatory licences, helmets and seatbelts for NSW quad bike users
A coroner investigating a string of fatal quad bike accidents in the past decade has made several recommendations to improve safety and reduce the number of deaths.
Deputy state coroner Sharon Freund recommended a safety rating system for quad bikes and mandatory licences, helmets and seatbelts.
She also recommended children under the age of 16 be banned from riding the vehicles.
"The emotional and social costs of these deaths to family friends and the community are enormous," Magistrate Freund said.
"It is imperative in my view that steps be taken to make these vehicles safer."
Magistrate Freund investigated the circumstances surrounding the eight deaths, which occurred on farms or in rural areas between 2009 and 2014.
In all of the cases the victims were thrown or fell, and several were pinned under the vehicles.
Two of the victims were children under the age of 13, while the other six were adults.
There have been a total of 19 quad bike deaths in Australia in 2015.
A recent inquest in Queensland recommended that children under the age of 16 be banned from riding the vehicles.
Mark Collins, from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, welcomed most of the findings, but called for more research before any safety rating system was introduced.
"The test that they're doing and the ratings they're suggesting, we don't believe will inform the customer or necessarily push them onto a safer product so no we wouldn't agree with what they're checking at this point," Mr Collins said.
"If it was evidence-based, then I'd be more in favour of it in terms of what they're recommending."
The reforms in Australia are set to be modelled on a ban on children riding all-terrain vehicles in the US state of Massachusetts, which led to a dramatic result, with not a single child under 14 being killed in a quad bike rollover in the past five years.
Design of the vehicles is inherently dangerous, expert says
Professor Raphael Grzebieta, a road safety expert from the University of New South Wales, welcomed the findings but said the design of the vehicles was inherently dangerous.
"They're excellent. I think the coroner is absolutely spot on," Professor Grzebieta said.
"We want to see safer vehicles, we want to see changes made to the design of these vehicles.
"I think the recommendations, particularly the ones concerning child safety, the recommendation for the safety rating system, are key recommendations that I hope, if implemented, will reduce the fatalities and serious injuries on quad bikes.
"It's a long time coming. We did this many years ago with cars, we put stars on cars, now we're going to try and put stars on quads.
"Hopefully, Workcover will take up those recommendations from the coroner.
"Riding a quad bike is sort of equivalent to riding a big, over-laden truck over rough terrain.
"So, what you're doing, is you're manipulating a vehicle which is difficult to control over undulating terrain.
"We're being told that it is difficult, from industry, to make these changes, we suggest not."
Riding a quad bike is sort of equivalent to riding a big, over-laden truck over rough terrain
Royal Australian College of Surgeons Trauma Committee chair John Crozier said this recommendation must be made a national priority.
"The prohibition of children riding adult quad bikes is absolutely paramount," Dr Crozier said.
"The mass of these vehicles, the weight of the quad bike, there's little room on what's an inherently unstable vehicle.
"The penalty for an error of judgement or lacking of the necessary skill or not having sufficient body weight or physical strength, shouldn't be death or serious injury."