Injury mechanisms in fatal Australian quad bike incidents

ABSTRACT

Objectives: The ability to determine risk management controls for quad bike use is confounded by limitations in crash and injury information. The aim of this article is to identify the injury mechanisms, crash characteristics, and contributing factors in fatal quad bike incidents in Australia by activity (recreation and work).

Methods: An in-depth case series study was undertaken of 106 Australian quad bike fatalities that had occurred between 2000 and 2013. All case material held by Australian coroners was obtained and reviewed.

Results: One hundred and six cases were categorized as occurring during recreation (53) and work (53). Fifty-two of the work cases occurred during farmwork. The mean age for those killed during a work activity was 56 years compared to 27 years for recreational riders. Two children under 16 years died while performing farmwork and 13 children under 16 years during recreational activities. The analyses show a very clear pattern for farmwork-related deaths: quad bike rolls or pitches over (farmworker, 85%; recreational rider, 55%), rider becomes pinned under quad bike (farmworker, 68%; recreational rider, 30%), and death by asphyxia (farmworker, 42%; recreational rider, 11%). In contrast, recreational riders suffered complex impact injuries to the head and chest that occurred when the rider was traveling at speed, lost control, was ejected, and collided with an object in the environment and/or interacted with the moving quad bike.

Conclusions: The analyses support the need to improve safe quad bike operation through consideration of the age of the rider, training, helmet use, reducing the propensity of quad bikes to roll, and improving handling so that loss of control events are reduced and to prevent crushing and pinning by the vehicle during and after a rollover crash.

KEYWORDS:

• off-road motor vehicles
• asphyxia
• wounds and injuries
• human engineering

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge and thank the members of the international QBPP Project Reference Group for their valuable input to the project and the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine (VIFM) as the source organisation of the National Coroners Information System (NCIS) from which rollover crash data were extracted for the Australian fatality data presented in this article. The authors also thank Joanna Cotsonis for her assistance as the NCIS Access Liaison Officer for the QBPP and all of the state coroners for allowing access to the full brief of evidence for the Australian quad bike fatality cases. The authors also thank the court staff members who were extremely helpful during correspondence and visits: Australian Capital Territory, Michell Heidtmann and Alison Purvis; Victoria, Lisa Brodie and Angela Belegrinos; Tasmania, Kelly Medhurst and Jenny Scott; South Australia, Michele Bayly-Jones and Delia O'Neill; Western Australia, Kate Ellson, Sue Wilde, Karen Harding, and Amy Heu; Northern Territory, Alana Carter; Queensland, Leanne Field; New South Wales, Ann Lambino; and all of the members of the local courts who assisted in the retrieval and copying of case files.

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Workcover Authority of NSW for funding the the work presented in this article within the Quad Bike Performance Project (QBPP), in particular, Tony Williams and Diane Vaughan. The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) also contributed funds to the QBPP. In response to the incidence of fatal and serious injury rollovers involving quad bikes in the Australian farming sector, the Australian Heads of Workplace Safety Authorities (HWSA) and the Quad Bike Industry Working Group Strategy (Design) for improving the safety of quad bikes in the farm environment supported the funding of the QBPP at the Transport and Road Safety (TARS) Research unit at the University of NSW. Neither Workcover NSW nor the ACCC had a role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; and in the decision to submit the article for publication. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors.