While an airplane crash is a national news story and prompts a lengthy investigation into the cause, it’s not the same for quads.
In just the last few months:
- On Sept. 17, an Ontario man died when he lost control of his ATV and the quad rolled near Casselman, Ont.
- On Aug. 25, a woman died in an ATV rollover in western Saskatchewan. The RCMP announced the accident, saying the woman was pronounced dead on the scene near Tramping Lake.
- On July 10, a 34-year-old man died at a Winnipeg hospital after his ATV rolled near Winkler, Man.
- On June 19, a 77-year old man died in an ATV rollover in Alberta’s Red Deer County.
In these recent deaths and in many quad fatalities in Canada, the common theme is a rollover.
A Statistics Canada report on ATV fatalities released in June, found that rollovers were a factor in 45 percent of deaths. That’s about 320 rollover-related deaths in seven years.
Rollovers far outpace other causes of ATV deaths, including collisions with a stationary object (16 percent of cases) and ejections (12 percent).
Australia has a similar problem with quad rollovers, but two years ago its government passed a law to reduce injuries and deaths.
It is now illegal to sell a new or used quad unless a rollover bar is mounted to the ATV. The regulation took full effect Oct. 10. If a retailer ignores the law, the consequences can be severe.
“We’re talking a $500,000 fine if we were to sell an (non-compliant) ATV after Oct. 11,” Dean Johns, an ATV dealer in Tasmania, told ABC News in Australia.
The penalties are high, but safety advocates believe they are necessary. That includes Mick Keogh, deputy chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
“Quad bike accidents are the leading cause of death and injury on Australian farms and the mandatory safety standard will be critical in saving lives,” he said.
In 2020, 24 people died in quad accidents in Australia, the highest total on record.
Many more people die riding ATVs in Canada and public safety groups are now wondering if roll bars could save lives in this country.
On Oct. 20-21, the Canadian Agricultural Safety Association is scheduled to hold its annual meeting and a CASA member from Australia is sponsoring a resolution about roll bars for ATVs in Canada.
“The StatCan report (100 deaths per year) is across every Canadian politicians’ desk,” said Matthew Tiplady, who is a CASA member because he’s in the ag safety business. “Rollover deaths can be prevented.”
Tiplady has a personal and professional interest in roll bars.
He is the Australian distributor of ATV Lifeguards and Quadguards — two products that protect the rider during a rollover.
“I don’t necessarily agree with mandatory roll bars, even here in Australia. I believe that the farmer should make their own choice,” he said. “But they should also be made aware of the advancements of safety products such as (roll bars).”
One of the roll bars that satisfy the Australian standard, called the Lifeguard, is a half circle of metal mounted to the rear of the quad. It looks like a mini-version of the St. Louis arch. Another product, the Quadbar, is a metal bar that connects to the back of the machine.
After-market versions are available in Canada, but they’re not popular with ATV riders in Canada.
“Not really…. I’m not seeing a whole lot of chatter on Facebook or all the forums about (roll bars),” said John Meed, general manager of the Saskatchewan ATV Association.
“It’s certainly not on the radar here.”
Tiplady disagreed. He has sold roll bars to Canadian ATV dealers “who have had great success and have reordered.”
Nonetheless, when ATV leaders in Canada talk about safety and what causes fatalities, three issues usually dominate the conversation.
“Number one is alcohol. Number two is not wearing safety equipment, no helmet. Probably number three is stunting: doing things you’re not capable of doing,” Meed said from his home near Regina. “If we can get people to stop drinking and riding, and wear their helmet… fatalities would disappear.”
The StatCan data from 2013-19 confirm Meed’s statement.
In deaths of ATV riders who are 20-49 years old, alcohol was a factor 68 percent of the time.
Riding alone is also a major factor. In 40 percent of deaths, the ATV rider was alone.
Less drinking, more helmets and less stunt riding would save lives, but some safety experts believe that ATV roll bars would also make a difference.
Don Voaklander, director of the Injury Prevention Centre at the University of Alberta, is an advocate of mandatory roll bars in Canada.
“It’s not just the crushing injuries that will kill you,” he said in 2019, noting a crush protection device is “a huge help in preventing asphyxiation injuries because there is enough space to get yourself out.”
Meed isn’t convinced.
When an ATV rolls, maybe because the driver turned too sharply, it’s rare for the rider to get crushed under the quad, he said.
“In my experience, this is not (how) the majority of people are getting hurt or killed,” he said. “With the rollover, normally they’re ejected. Very few people stay on the machine when they are rolling over. It’s very, very unusual.”
Most injuries and deaths occur when somebody flies off the ATV and they hit a tree, a rock or a fence, he added.
Attaching a roll bar to the quad would prevent crushing accidents, but it doesn’t solve the problem of the quad flipping and the driver falling off the machine.
“We appreciate there is a safety issue… (but) it may address a fairly small problem, at a cost,” Meed said.
In Australia, the Lifeguard protection device (the one that looks like a hoop) costs about $1,200.
In 2019, Public Health Ontario published a 40-page report on the causes of ATV deaths and injuries in the province. The doctors and safety experts who authored the report found that “most fatalities related to ATVs were caused by injury/blunt force trauma and the most common fatal injury location was the head and neck.”
The report looks at emergency room visits in Ontario (in 2015-16) and lists the type of accident that caused the injury. In 2015-16, there were 11,091 emergency room visits because of ATV injuries and 1,011 hospitalizations.
The top four causes:
- rollovers: 32.1 percent;
- fell off vehicle: 26 percent'
- ejection: 10 percent;
- collision with stationary object: five percent.
For younger riders, falling off the ATV was the most common reason for an emergency room visit.
“In the younger age groups (zero-11 and 12-15 years), falling off the ATV accounted for the highest proportion of injuries,” the report said.
“In the older age groups (25-35 and 36-plus), the highest proportions of injuries resulted from rollovers.”
The Ontario report found many ATV riders don’t wear a helmet. Of the injured riders who showed up at a hospital emergency room in Ontario, only 53 percent were wearing a helmet when the accident happened.
A total of 705 ATV deaths in seven years is a large number, but serious injuries should not be ignored, said Kathy Belton, associate director of the Injury Prevention Centre at the University of Alberta.
If a 16-year-old boy suffers a brain injury in an ATV accident, it can change the rest of his life. In Alberta and Ontario, during a one-year period in 2018-19, 501 people reported to hospital with a brain injury from an ATV accident.
“You can wind up in a wheelchair. You can wind up partially paralyzed,” Belton said.
Educational campaigns on the value of wearing helmets and not drinking and riding, can change a few minds and prevent such injuries. But the number one tool for reducing injuries and deaths is making the machine less dangerous, she said.
“We know from all our injury-prevention science that there are three strategies… there is engineering, there is education and there is enforcement,” Belton said.
“The most effective solution is engineering. Because you take out the human element.”
A good example is modern cars. They come with air bags, breakaway front ends, collapsible steering columns and other safety features to prevent deaths in an accident.
Education campaigns about ATV safety and enforcement of rules will continue to be important, but such programs will have limited effects if the machines are prone to rollovers.
“If I’m going to pick one, single solution, it’s going to be engineering,” Belton said. “Hands down. For most of our (safety) issues.”
Belton added this is also about parent education. ATVs are not toys and children should use a machine that is appropriate for their age.
Other groups have gone further.
Nearly a decade ago, the Canadian Paediatric Society said that children younger than 16 should not operate ATVs of any size.
“Kids don’t have the knowledge or strength to operate these vehicles safely,” a Paediatric Society representative said in 2012. “Their lack of sound judgment when encountering a potentially dangerous situation and tendency toward risk-taking only adds to the danger.”
The Public Health Ontario report didn’t make recommendations. But the authors did mention the risks to children from riding ATVs.
“What is concerning is the high proportion of head/neck injuries in young children, particularly given the known short and long-term risks associated with minor and major head injuries.”
