Editorial: She'll be right? No, she won't

Coroner Brandt Shortland is right - the issue around quad-bike safety is complex.

Short of banning them, there seem to be few solutions looming that will prevent deaths associated with the vehicles, particularly farm-worker deaths.

The problem Mr Shortland faces, in making recommendations after what will be a string of inquests into quad bike-related deaths, is that good coroners before him faced the same "what do we do" problem.

Quads are an efficient farm tool, and have replaced an even more dangerous farm vehicle - the trike. The latter had a unique and dangerous handling quirk. To maintain balance, the rider had to break the body's natural will and lean the opposite way a motorcycle rider normally would, when cornering.

They stopped making trikes - they are still making quads in what is a multimillion-dollar industry.

Farmers love quads. They are a vital rural tool, economical to run, and provide mobility, albeit with stability issues.

Perhaps riders are lulled into a false sense of four-wheel protection - yet they subject the rider to the same injury and death exposure that a two-wheel motorbike does.

Previous coroners have called for compulsory lap-belts, helmets and roll bars. The farming industry response was not one of "eureka".

So what to do?

If demand for the product outweighs safety fears, product modification and social change seems the only solution. One is short term - social change, much longer an exercise.

But if Kiwis care one iota about their fellow farming man, and woman, they need to change their attitudes.

"She'll be right" was a fine mantra in the 1960s, but it has no place in the modern farming environment.