The Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety wants stronger regulations on quad bike safety.

The centre’s director Dr Tony Lower wants the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and state governments to develop and enforce more proactive legislation.

He pointed to a recent US study that showed highly significant reductions in child hospital admissions and Emergency Department visits related to quad bikes as a result of tighter laws.

The study assessed “Seans Law”, which was introduced in the state of Massachusetts in 2010, restricting the use of quads by children under 14 years of age, and new rules for riders aged 14‐18 years.

“This study provides strong support for Australian efforts to minimise deaths and injuries to children” Dr Lower said.

“We really need to question the safety of these products, including the inappropriately named youth and child‐sized quads that can weigh up to 120kg.

“We know that injuries sustained by quads are more severe in nature than those from motorcycles. This is due to the frequency of rollovers and the weight of the vehicles.

“Farm kids are even more highly exposed with 75 per cent of all child quad‐related deaths in Australia occurring on‐farm, with the majority of these being kids that reside on the property.

“While virtually everyone agrees that kids should not be riding adult‐sized quads, we also have several cases involving child‐sized quads that have resulted in crush and asphyxiation deaths.”

The US study went over more than 4000 cases, and found that the regulations resulted in the rate of hospital admissions (indicative of serious injuries) falling by 41 per cent.

Emergency Department visits dropped by a third for those aged 0‐9 years, 50 per cent for 10‐13 year olds and 39 per cent in the 14‐17 year old age group.

A control group of riders aged 25‐34 year olds saw no significant decrease over the same period.

“While the quad manufacturers will resist any attempt to cut into their market share, these results clearly indicate that quads of any size are not suitable for children given their physical and mental maturity,” Dr Lower said.

“Just like those working in the food industry and in the tobacco sector before that, manufacturers are keen to get kids hooked on their product early, make them brand loyal and develop a customer for life.”