Quad bike accidents are costing New Zealand farmers dearly, with the average crash putting someone out of work for 82 days, nearly a full farming season, according to Farm Without Harm New Zealand.
Since 2019, 23 farmers, growers and rural workers have lost their lives in workplace accidents. About 70% of those deaths could have been avoided.
Safer Farms is now offering financial support to help farmers fit Crush Protection Devices and GPS rollover safety systems to quad bikes and side-by-side vehicles, aiming to reduce serious injuries and fatalities on farms.
Crush Protection Devices, known as CPDs, are designed to stop a quad bike from crushing the rider during a rollover.
Fitted to the back of a quad bike, a CPD creates a protective space if the bike rolls. By holding the bike off the ground, the device helps prevent riders from being pinned or crushed underneath, giving them room to move or escape.
CPDs can also influence how a quad bike rolls, potentially reducing the severity of some low-speed overturns.
Over the past few years, local Oaklands Milk dairy farm owner Julian Raine, who has farms in Stoke and Motupiko, Tasman, has had Crush Protection Devices fitted to all four of their quad bikes.
“The consequences for not taking health and safety seriously are pretty dire for the staff member involved, their family and the farm,” Julian says. “We have got some hilly farms here and there’s certainly people I know who have had bad quad bike accidents.”
Julian points out that their Crush Protection Devices use a flexible design that bends under load, allowing the device to flex over the rider in a rollover and maintain a protective space without transferring as much force. By contrast, a hard bar is rigid and does not give way, meaning it can take the full force of the bike’s weight and increase the risk of the rider being trapped or struck.
Julian says he does everything he can to protect his staff and family and adds that helmet use is compulsory on their farms.
Through the Safer Rides programme, landowners can receive 20% off a CPD from Trax Equipment or QuadBar, offering savings of up to $395 off the recommended retail price on selected models. Farmers can apply for a voucher code through the Safer Rides scheme.
More information is available on the Farm Without Harm website by searching ‘safer rides 2026’.
