September 12, 2017
The State Government launched the latest phase of its Ride Ready quad bike safety advertising campaign on Tuesday.
Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace said with an average 600 people needing hospital treatment every year because of quad bikes, the time had come to really push safety messages to people who use them.
“Over the past 15 years in Queensland alone, more than 70 people have been killed in quad bike incidents and many more are injured,” Ms Grace said.
“Tragically that means about one third of quad bike deaths in Australia happen in Queensland and a large number of those are children.
“We’re working closely with manufacturers and those involved in occupational and recreational quad bike use, but we know that our Ride ready advertising campaign really gets to the hearts and minds of our communities.”
Ms Grace said after the campaign ran throughout 2016, independent market research was commissioned which showed the adverts were having a heartening result.
“More people said they believed helmets are a must, more people recognised that doubling on quads is dangerous and more people thought that formal training is valuable to improving safety,” she said.
“But we need to keep these adverts going until the changes in beliefs turn into long-term changes in behaviour.
“Use of quads spikes during holiday periods and that’s why we really push safety messages heading into and during these breaks.”
The current phase of the Ride Ready campaign is now running online, on social media, in the press and on radio.
It’s main focus is on wearing helmets and children not riding adult sized bikes.
In conjunction with the advertising campaign, Workplace Health and Safety Queensland has launched a new online challenge to encourage safe riding, with five new quad bike helmets up for grabs.
“The challenge is designed to get people to our website so we can raise awareness of quad bike safety through the information, films and school resources we have published there,” Ms Grace said.
Anyone using a quad bike should remember these basic rules:
- Always wear a helmet
- Don’t let kids ride adult bikes
- Don’t carry passengers
- Supervise kids at all times
- Get training
- Check that a quad bike is the best vehicle for the job
For more information go to Ride Ready.
