Quad bikes are the modern day work horses. Photo/Thinkstock
Quad bikes are the modern-day work horses on Kiwi farms.
They are covered in mud and cow poo and are used daily.
Farmers will use them to zoom from one end of the farm to another to mend a fence or to corral cows across roads.
Ask any bleary-eyed farmer during calving season and they will say the bikes are worth their weight in gold.
When farm equipment is used appropriately, the benefits far outweigh the risks.
But operating quad bikes across rural terrain can be tricky, and accidents happen. And often they are tragic.
Welcome Bay farm manager Hans Josef Meier, 66, died last week after the quad bike he was riding rolled. According to St John ambulance officers, Mr Meier was missing for most of the day and was not found until about 6pm that night.
Neighbour Jodi Vale spoke about the guilt she felt when she heard the news.
"I was out all day which normally I'm not, which makes me really sad because should I have been home I would have seen him or even been able to report something sooner and to get him help," she said.
"I often see him out working or spraying at my fence line and my heart really breaks for his family."
While this is a tragedy, it appears all too often in our news pages.
Federated Farmers' health and safety spokesperson Jeanette Maxwell says calling for a ban on quad bikes may be ill-conceived, as we would also need to consider banning road bikes and mopeds because there are also deaths on New Zealand roads.
It may be ill-conceived, but it needs to be noted that farm bikes outnumber road bikes.
Federated Farmers estimates there are about 100,000 quad bikes on New Zealand farms compared with 63,000 road-going motorcycles and 23,000 mopeds.
There is no legal requirement for riders to be licensed, or farm vehicles to be warranted.
More emphasis needs to be placed on farm safety. We need to protect workers in our country's biggest industry.
For all the good they do on farms, and however handy, quad bikes are a dangerous piece of farm equipment and should be treated as such.
A disregard for authority could be why those attending court are thumbing their noses.