Photo: There are still some tractors that are still not fitted with a roll bar or safety cab (photo taken in 2012).
A quick search of the internet shows that fatal quad accidents are a regular occurrence. I see quads around Connemara all the time – they are ideal for bring a bale or a bag of feed up the side of a boggy hill. But they are heavy machines and if they roll over, they have the capability to crush or trap their rider. It is truly regrettable that so many fatalities had to occur to prompt the required legislation. There was an opportunity to introduce legislation back in 2005, when the issue was raised in the Seanad (by senator Pat Moylan, himself a farmer) during the debate on the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill, 2004 Bill :-
There is another area of concern, namely, the use of quad motors, on farms and in general. Action must be taken to deal with them. Quads are similar to a small four-wheel drive tractor but with no roller bar, which was compulsory even on very old tractors that could not do more than 5 mph. These quads are well capable of doing 30 mph or 40 mph. There is no protection whatever and they contribute to an enormous number of accidents. Last year, a prominent member of the Irish Farmers Association was seriously injured in such an accident and he is only one of many. I hope this will be reviewed without delay so that something may be done about it.
Thirteen years later, and far too many deaths and injuries later, the legislators are finally doing something about it. Dara Calleary (T. D. for Fianna Fail, Mayo) will propose legislation to ensure that quads / all-terrain vehicles will have to be fitted with roll bars. It follows a recommendation from the Mayo coroner at the inquest of a farmer killed in a quad accident. Apart from the missed opportunity of including quads in the 2004 Bill, it seemed that nothing was learned from the long campaign to introduce similar safety equipment for tractors back in the Sixties. The cost of inertia has been very high.
Looking at the Dáil record in the Sixties, James Tully ³ (Labour T.D. for Meath) seemed to plough a lone furrow in demanding better safety for tractors. Back in 1962, he highlighted¹ that there were fifty fatal farm accidents the previous year, including an increasing number of tractor-related deaths. By 1969, the government finally acted². However, the law only required tractors to have a safety cab if they were in a public space – despite the fact that most fatalities happened on a farm. The law also only applied to new tractors – the law didn’t apply to all tractors until 1977. And why the delay ? In the words of the then minister :-
There is no technical difficulty in doing it but some people would find it a hardship to have to do this on existing tractors
In the meantime, farmers would continue to die in tractor accidents (twenty out of thirty six farm fatalities in 1972 were due to tractor accidents). Even today, the majority of farms deaths are due tractors and all-terrain vehicles (typically quads) – causing 8 of the twelve death sin 2017.