FCAI finds critical errors in ATV safety report

The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) has criticised a report on farm safety, pointing out several errors relating to all-terrain vehicles (ATV).

Farmsafe Australia, a farm safety lobby group, released its ‘Safer Farmers’ report last week. The report suggests that agriculture is still one of Australia’s most dangerous industries.

However the FCAI wants to correct ‘erroneous statements’ made by farm lobby groups and the ACCC, by stating facts around farm vehicle fatalities.

The Farmsafe report states that ATV’s are the most common vehicles involved in agricultural fatalities, but the FCAI claims this isn’t true. Citing data from SafeWork Australia (SWA), the FCAI says that between 2003 and 2019 tractor fatalities (145) far exceeded that of ATV fatalities (83).

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In particular, the FCAI points to recreational ATV use as a major concern rather than specific agricultural use. The SWA’s ‘Quad Watch’ data between 2011 and 2019 shows that more than 50 per cent of ATV fatalities on farms occurred during recreational use.

The FCAI also listed a number of factors which contributed to these ATV fatalities:

• Age: Of the 69 non-work fatalities between 2011 and 2019, 18 were children under 16 years of age (26 per cent) riding on adult sized ATVs.
• Helmets: For work related fatalities (where helmet use was recorded), only one of 30 riders was wearing a helmet. For the non-work-related fatalities (where helmet use was recorded), only five of 34 fatalities (14.7 per cent) were wearing helmets.
• Passengers: Five of the 18 child fatalities were passengers on single seat ATVs.

The Farmsafe report follows a new Australian safety standard that requires all ATV manufacturers to fit crush protection devices (CPD’s) to ATV’s from October, 2021.

Farmsafe and the ACCC believe that CDP’s are valid safety devices and have compared them to tractor roll-over protection systems (ROPS).

But the FCAI pointed out that ROPS is only effective when the driver is wearing a seat-belt, which prevents them falling outside the ROPS protection zone. As ATV riders generally can’t wear a seat belt, the FCAI believes that the rider could fall to a spot where the CPD provides no protection, and may in fact be struck by the CPD.

Farmsafe and the ACCC also reported that CPD’s are mandatory for ATV’s in Israel, but the FCAI points out that this is incorrect. No other market in the world mandates the fitment of CPD’s.

The mandatory fitment of CPD’s has forced major ATV distributors, including Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Polaris and BRP, to exit the Australian ATV market. These distributors, along with the FCAI, believe there is no real-world evidence to suggest CPD’s will reduce the number of ATV fatalities, and in-fact suggest they could produce more risk.

While the ACCC states there have been no fatalities or serious injuries where a CPD was fitted, the FCAI claims there has been at least one fatality, despite only a small proportion of Australia ATV’s currently fitted with CPD’s. The FCAI also says a University of NSW study reported a slightly higher rate of serious injury in roll-overs where a CPD was fitted.

The manufacturer’s ATV safety advice aligns with three separate coronial recommendations which include mandatory helmet use and training for all ATV users, children under 16 banned from adult ATV’s, and passengers banned from single seat ATV’s.

The FCAI states that half of all ATV fatalities could be prevented by implementing the coronial recommendations, but the ACCC and the farm lobby groups have apparently neglected this evidence in their final recommendations to the government.

Phase one of the new ATV safety standard comes into effect in October 2020, with the fitment of CPD’s becoming mandatory in Phase two, which begins in October 2021.