Safety checks on quad bikes on Scottish farms

Date:

3 June 2010

Release No:

SCO/149/10

Safety inspectors will be carrying out checks at Scottish farms this month to ensure quad bikes are being used and maintained correctly.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) wants to raise awareness of the risks of using all terrain vehicles (ATVs), such as quad bikes, amongst farmers to prevent avoidable injuries and deaths. Each year an average of two people die and more than 1,000 are injured in quad bike or ATV incidents.

From 7-18 June, inspectors will make unannounced visits to farms in East Lothian, Borders, Fife, Perthshire, Angus and Stirlingshire to assess the safety standards. The checks will focus on head protection, vehicle maintenance and training, to ensure agricultural employers protect their workers and themselves.

HSE Inspector Gillian McLean says:

"More than half of all quad bike riders have been thrown from their vehicle at some point, so it is vital that farmers ensure all their workers wear helmets, are properly trained and that all bikes are well maintained.

"Nobody who has died from head injuries after falling off a quad bike was wearing a helmet. Helmets would certainly have prevented most, if not all, the deaths caused by quad bike accidents. Simple safety precautions can save lives."

Farming remains one of the most dangerous professions in the UK. Although only 1.5 per cent of the working population works in agriculture, the industry accounts for one in five work-related deaths every year. HSE is working closely with the industry to help it reduce this number.

Notes to editors

1. Training is essential to reducing the risks of accidents when using quad bikes. Under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER), there is a legal requirement for employers to provide adequate training, and to ensure that only employees who have received appropriate training are permitted to ride quad bikes.
2. HSE produces health and safety guidance for farmers, organizes free health and safety awareness days, provides information and advice through farm visits, by telephone and at agriculture shows. It also monitors the health and safety performance of the industry and, where necessary, takes enforcement action against employers who endanger lives.
3. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety. It aims to reduce work-related death, injury and ill health. It does so through research, information and advice; promoting training; new or revised regulations and codes of practice; and working with local authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement. www.hse.gov.uk

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