Plea to Quad Bike Users

“My husband answered the phone and when he heard the police say ‘your daughter was in an accident,’ my husband’s heart nearly fell out from fright,” said Edwina Southern.

It was actually their 13 year old granddaughter Victory who had been in a fatal quad bike accident in the Pilliga eight days ago.

Thankfully Victory walked away from the accident but the death of her young friend weighs heavily and on Sunday another local family was rocked by a death following a quad bike accident: Local Man Found Deceased.

“She was thrown off, but she was up the back taking a movie of them on the quad bike ride, she’d never been on one, so that was really handy for the police, so they have her phone and that will probably go to the coroner,” said Ms Southern.

“The next morning we went to the police station and she gave two hours worth of information to the policeman which would have been hard for her,” she said.

“She was sobbing, she was upset over that little girl, not over herself over the little girl that was killed, see she was there and at her age to see a child; I think between them they must have carried her for quite a while to try and get help,” Edwina Southern said.

Since Victory’s mother passed away when Victory was only 11 months old, she has been raised by her grandparents.

Victory went to Scone Grammar School in her primary years and is now at Calrossy in Tamworth for high school.

Edwina said she knows she can’t wrap her granddaughter in cotton wool, but she was shocked to learn of the dangers of quad bikes and wants others to be less complacent.

“We take risks in life, if you drive a car it’s a risk and you can’t wrap them in cotton wool,” said Ms Southern.

“I stopped and had a look at a new quad bike in a shop and there are warning labels all over them and I just didn’t realise they were so dangerous,” she said.

“Drivers must be over 16, no passengers because that affects the ability to steer it, must have roll bars and driver must wear a helmet that’s just four of the things I’ve written but there were a lot more warnings on the brand new bike, but I suppose they wear off out in the weather,” she said.

“I think people become complacent using them every day, rounding sheep up or whatever they do and the kids are brought up on the farm and it is like a vehicle to them instead of a push bike I suppose they’ve got one of these quad bikes,” Edwina Southern said.

Edwina said she’d like to see people adhere to the warnings and wear a helmet on quad bikes.

“The police said they can’t go onto private property to check if people are wearing helmets, but people come to see if our pool is up to scratch and it should be the same for quad bikes,” she said.

“I just don’t want to see any more little ones hurt and for people to think about the warning labels,” she said.

Last week the government announced it had doubled the rebates available to owners of quad bikes to improve safety features.

For more information on the bates visit: SafeWork NSW.