More deaths and horrific injuries will happen on Australian farms unless the government makes roll bars on quad bikes mandatory, surgeons have warned.
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An Australian Competition and Consumer Commission review recommended mandatory roll protection on four-wheel bikes in March 2018 to curb deaths on farms.
Warwick Teague, who is the director of the trauma service at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital, said he was seeing people disabled in quad bike incidents.
"At the coalface we're seeing injuries that no one should be facing within their lifetime," he told AAP.
"Head injuries, injuries to the chest and abdomen - which are devastating - spinal injuries, crushes to the pelvis and debilitating injuries to the lower limb bones."
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' quad bike spokesman said tens of people, including children, were dying each year.
"Future generations will look back on this moment just as we now look back on seatbelts on car seats," Dr Teague said.
The paediatric surgeon said more than 230 people had died in quad-bike accidents since 2001, with thousands more injured in that period.
"They are not inherently stable pieces of equipment and the sooner we recognise that and mitigate for it, the sooner we will be protecting lives," Dr Teague said.
The National Farmers' Federation is rallying support for change, with the Country Women's Association joining the push along with a slew of other rural organisations.
NFF workforce committee and Farmsafe chair Charles Armstrong said the government had to act on the ACCC's recommendation to make protective devices mandatory.
"There's caution because the manufacturers have said these things will kill you," the NSW farmer told AAP.
"We know from 12,500 tests out there, people with these protective devices on there hasn't been one fatality recorded over many years."
He said there was hesitancy among some MPs to support roll bars on quad-bikes, but Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar had the power to take a stand.
"Don't they have a conscience about the lives that are being lost, the serious injuries that are occurring as a result of not having these devices?"
Manufacturers including Honda and Yamaha have threatened to withdraw from the Australian market if laws are passed mandating roll protection on quad bikes.
Aside from protection devices, the farmers' lobby also wants a five-star safety rating system to encourage competition among manufacturers.
Australian Associated Press
