Quad Bike Safety: Consultation Regulation Impact Statement - Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

Response 484517659

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Questions 1 - 11

1. The ACCC has proposed five policy options. Which is your preferred option and why do you prefer it to the others?

Please select one item

Policy option 1

Policy option 2

Policy option 3

Policy option 4

Policy option 5

Ensuring quality products with a known level of dynamic performance would help. They’re passive protection. I don’t believe people will wear seat belts as they should if using roll over protection.

3. If you are a quad bike user, what would be the impact of the proposed options?

I won’t buy a quad with a roll bar. I’ll keep my existing quad. It suits my gently undulating, mowed grass surface orchard floor.

4. What effect will each of the proposed options have in saving lives and reducing deaths?

As above I don’t believe people will use a seatbelt with a roll bar. That can cause further injury. Passive protection from well designed machines, used correctly should be a good solution. Employers/business operators need to choose appropriate machinery and train staff accordingly.

5. The US Standard requires a number of general warning labels to be affixed to the quad bike. The ACCC is proposing additional labels and information in the owners’ manual, alerting the operator to the risk of rollovers and differential selection. Provide comment on these two additional labels (see section 8.6 of the Consultation Regulation Impact Statement)

Nobody pays attention to the labels. They’re like wallpaper.

6. Provide comment on the current model of the safety star rating system (see Attachment A of the Consultation Regulation Impact Statement).

A meaningful star rating system should help. Business owners claiming tax effectiveness may choose safer over cheapest.

7. In Option 3, the ACCC has suggested some safety and operational criteria that an Operator Protection Device (OPD), designed to protect the operator in the event of a rollover, could meet. What are your views on the proposed criterion an OPD may be required to meet? Should additional criteria be imposed?

An OPD must be appropriate for use with no seatbelt as people won’t use them.

8. Provide comment on the minimum performance criteria (see Attachment D in the Consultation Regulation Impact Statement) and the requirement for general-use model quad bikes to be able to have all wheels of the vehicle be able to rotate at different speeds, referred to in Option 4.

This will make the biggest difference to operator safety.

9. Options 3, 4 and 5 do not propose additional design solutions for SSVs and sport and youth quad bikes. If your view is that one or more of these vehicles should be subject to additional design solutions to improve safety, do you have information and data you can provide to the ACCC in support of this view?

Youth quads should be regulated. Parents won’t necessarily be offered good advice in a shop.

10. Provide comment on the transition period for the proposed options (see Section 8.8 in the Consultation Regulation Impact Statement).

5 years to cover business cycles of depreciating assets.