Motorbike leathers are worn like a badge of honour by some of the toughest (and scariest) blokes in the country. They reek of the danger inherent in their metal steeds.
Farmers don’t share this aura yet spend hours every day on bikes and working inches from hundreds of half-tonne animals. The risks are real and the consequences can be heartbreaking.
Following yesterday’s tragic death of an 11-year-old boy, WorkSafe spokesperson Michael Birt told The Weekly Times there had been 14 workplace deaths in Victoria and five of those were on farms.
“A third of the deaths have happened on farms and it’s people doing routine tasks. You don’t get much more routine than moving cattle on a dairy farm,” Mr Birt said.
Despite all of this, some of us hesitate to protect ourselves. I don’t know why. The other day, someone suggested there’s a fear we might “look like sissies”. By all means call me a sissy for looking after myself but I wouldn’t try running that line by a Hell’s Angel.
The Milk Maid Marian 
I was impressed that Michael also mentioned the more effective control measure of a crush protection device. Too often the focus is on personal protective equipment, like helmets, in isolation from the vehicle being used and the environment in which it is begin used.
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Thanks for your insightful comment, Kevin. We’ve now got two crush protection devices, or Quadbars, to help make our quads safer. The only thing I would highly recommend to other farmers purchasing the Quadbar is to make sure you get an extension bar if you tow anything with your quads – otherwise it’s too hard (or impossible in some cases) to get the trailer couplings on.
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