Regular warrant of fitness checks on quad bikes would do more for farmer safety than making riders wear crash helmets, Northland Federated Farmers leader Roger Ludbrook says.
Northland coroner Brandt Shortland has made a series of recommendations for quad bike safety after releasing his reports into the deaths of five farmers on quad bikes, including three in Northland.
Mr Shortland has stopped short of including a ban on quad bikes among his recommendations, saying the machine was entrenched as a vital farm tool.
But he did make a series of recommendations, after examining the Northland deaths of Carlos Frederick Mendoza, 52, from Dargaville, John Roderick (Jack) McInnes, 64, from Hikurangi and Suzanne Claudia Ferguson, 62, from Kaikohe, Albany man Grant Cornelius and Willem Van Der Pasch, from Otorohanga in Waikato.
Mr Mendoza died after spending at least two days trapped beneath his quad bike when it overturned during weed spraying on a farm at Arapohue Rd, in September 2010. He had been smoking cannabis between 30 minutes to five hours before his death.