Australia prohibits manufacturers from calling their vehicles ATVs when there is no proof the vehicles can handle all types of terrain. Most of the four-wheeled open vehicles that drivers straddle like bicycles are classified as quads.

As in the United States and Canada, ATV sales have risen dramatically in Australia during the last couple of years. A report in Australia’s Farm Weekly says that nearly 15,000 quads were sold just to the country’s agricultural sector in 2008 alone.

In examining records of 107 quad deaths, ACAHS found that men are more likely to die in accidents involving the vehicles. Emily Herde, ACAHS data centre research manager, said that there is “a propensity for quad bikes to roll over and cause serious injury to riders.”

“There are 50 cases within the register that relate to the rollover of a quad bike. Of these, two were front rollovers, eight were side rollovers, nine were rear rollovers and the remaining 31 were unspecified,” Herne said.

According to Farm Weekly, “Solving the problem is proving to be very difficult, with some safety mechanisms like the U and T-shaped rollover protection systems proven to do more harm than good by Dynamic Research Inc in the U.S.”

The ACAHS reminded farmers “not to treat quad bikes as all terrain vehicles, with the industry having to change the name of the bikes from ATV to quad bikes because of proof that they cannot handle all terrains,” the Farm Weekly report said.

SOURCE: Yamaha Rhino Rollover › ATV accidents killing Australian farmers at an alarming rate

“Tractors and all-terrain vehicles that can roll over. Machines with fast-moving parts that can tear off a limb. Animals that can gore, crush or bite. Chemicals that emit toxic fumes,” the article begins, underscoring the dangers that threaten Nebraska’s farmers every working day.

Dan Neenan, manager of the National Center for Agricultural Safety in Iowa, told the World-Herald that the number of agricultural injuries and fatalities could be drastically reduced if tractors were equipped with a rollover protection system and seat belts. Tractor rollovers have been the leading cause of death on Nebraska’s farms for many years.

As with tractors, rollovers are a serious problem with ATVs, especially those with narrow track widths and high centers of gravity, such as the Yamaha Rhino. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission continues to investigate reports of Rhino rollovers because so many of them appear to happen on level ground and at low speeds.

ATVs can become even more unstable when used for more utilitarian purposes, such as farming. Neenan told the World-Herald that “farmers also need to remember that attaching equipment to ATVs, such as sprayers or hay-bale racks, changes ATVs’ center of gravity and makes them unstable.”

The report notes that the number of deaths and injuries involving ATVs is increasing. In Nebraska, six people were killed in ATV accidents this year, and half of those were farming related.

SOURCE: Yamaha Rhino Rollover › ATV rollovers contribute to Nebraska farming injuries and deaths