Quad bike spill toll frustrates coroner

A popular Canterbury farmer is dead, leaving a senior coroner dismayed and frustrated by ‘‘political’’ resistance to safety improvements for quad bikes.

Hamish Baxter, 45, was found dead on the side of Gardiners Rd, Rakaia, during the weekend after crashing his quad bike while heading out to check on irrigation.

The death of the father-of-three, who was well-known in the Mid-Canterbury farming community, is the latest in a string of quad bike tragedies despite strong recommendations from a senior coroner over several years for improved safety measures.

In January 2011, Wellington coroner Ian Smith recommended mandatory helmets, lapbelts and roll bars, while blasting authorities for a lack of action. His call followed similar recommendations he made in 2009 with Palmerston North coroner Tim Scott after two deaths in the lower North Island.

Mr Smith said yesterday he was ‘‘extremely frustrated’’ that repeated calls for greater safety measures on quad bikes had not been implemented while deaths and injuries continued to happen.

‘‘These are unnecessary losses of life. As a coroner, when you repeatedly go into an issue and consider all the evidence and you are faced with it again, you think: ‘What’s the point?’,’’ he said.

‘‘I don’t know what the reasons are [for the lack of safety regulation]. Probably political and economic. The farming lobby has rallied against any suggestions we have come up with.

‘‘Quad bikes are inherently dangerous. There is no other way to describe it. You load them up with chemicals or other people and change the centre of gravity. They lull you into a false sense of security.

‘‘I’ve become extremely frustrated over a period of time with the quad bike issue.’’

Quad bike riders must wear safety helmets under NZ Transport Agency rules, but farmers are exempt if they are travelling less than 30 kilometres an hour from one part of their farm to another.

However, Federated Farmers agricultural health and safety spokeswoman Jeanette Maxwell said the organisation constantly pushed the quad bike safety message to farmers regarding wearing helmets, chest protectors and other safety mechanisms. It was recreational users where there was a ‘‘gap’’.

‘‘These accidents are really sad and they are preventable,’’ she said.

‘‘Often we find with farmers who have an accident, it’s that split second of distraction . . . rather than going too fast.’’

Sergeant Sean Buchanan said Mr Baxter had gone out to routinely check his irrigation system about 11pm on Saturday and briefly stopped at a house on the farm to visit a farm worker.

People from the house found him lying on the side of the road about 10 minutes later and unsuccessfully attempted CPR. He was not wearing a helmet.

Friend and neighbour Neil Brown said Mr Baxter was ‘‘a great fellow’’ who was passionate about farming, well respected in the community and ‘‘a good family man’’.

He is survived by his wife, Louise, and three teenage daughters.