Self-reported Quad Bike Use, Safety Behaviors, and Safety Awareness among Young Adults in U.S. and Canadian Agriculture

ABSTRACT

The number of agricultural fatalities and injuries related to agricultural quad bike use has risen substantially in the last two decades. Safe engineering design features such as crush protection and roll bars have proven potential to lessen the burden of injury but have traditionally not been included in many quad bike safety training programs. The aim of this study was to survey more than 700 young adults working in U.S. and Canadian agriculture to examine self-reported quad bike safety behaviors and awareness of quad bike safety design engineering features. We found that U.S. males continue to be at higher risk for quad bike-rollover incidents when compared to other groups. Even when accounting for other factors such as age and country, we found that participants who reported youth occupational quad bike use (≤14 years old) were up to 200% more likely to allow extra riders and up to 489% more likely to not wear a helmet when compared to participants who reported beginning occupational quad bike use in adulthood. These findings support the Agricultural Youth Work Guideline (AYWG) for occupational quad bike use at age 16. Less than 20% of young adults working in agriculture were aware of safe design features such as wide frames, stability ratings, crush protection devices, and accessories made by the original equipment manufacturer. There is tremendous need to educate the future agricultural workforce about the importance of choosing quad bikes with safer design features.

KEYWORDS:

• all-terrain vehicle (ATV)
• agriculture
• crush protection device (CPD)
• farm youth
• helmet
• roll-over
• quad bike

Acknowledgments

This research and ATV safety motion graphic development was supported by NIOSH/CDC under Grant Number 5 U54 0H007548 through the Central States Center for Agricultural Health and Safety. Thanks to David Sullivan and Alex Beach at the Ag Health and Safety Alliance™ for assisting with development of motion graphic for use in Gear Up for Ag Health and Safety™ programs in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/1059924X.2022.2141408

Additional information

Funding

The research and ATV (quad bike) safety motion graphic development was supported by NIOSH/CDC under Grant Number 5 U54 0H007548, Central States Center for Agricultural Health and Safety; National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health [5 U54 OH010162];