A petition calling for urgent quad bike safety reforms has been tabled in state parliament after more than 20 deaths in the past five years.
The petition, signed by 419 Tasmanians, was presented by Greens MLC Cassy O’Connor alongside Sonia van den Heuvel and Julius Daguman.
Their 14-year-old daughter Jocelyn died in an ATV rollover on a property north of Hobart in February 2023.
“Jocelyn Daguman had her whole life before her. She was bright and full of promise, precious and beloved to her mum and dad,” O’Connor said.
“Jocelyn died at 14 years of age on an ATV she didn’t know how to drive and lost control of, at a place she had been taken to without her parents’ consent. Their hearts are now completely broken.”
The petition calls for mandatory quad bike training and licensing, age restrictions for children and compulsory safety gear including helmets and seatbelts.
It also asks parliament to ban children under 16 from operating adult-sized quad bikes and prohibit those under six from riding any quad bike at all.
The push comes after separate coronial investigations recommended similar reforms, with the most recent finding Jocelyn’s death was preventable.
Coroner Simon Cooper reviewed several quad bike fatalities in 2017 and made safety recommendations that remain unimplemented.
Coroner Robert Webster’s 2024 investigation into Jocelyn’s death repeated those calls.
“Tasmanian coroners have twice called for reform to regulate quad bike and ATV use, but these calls have, to date, been ignored by the Rockliff government,” O’Connor said.
“Meanwhile, the tragic loss of life continues with more than 20 deaths in Tasmania in the past five years. It’s a shocking abrogation of duty on the part of government.”
Since 2001, more than 270 Australians have died in quad bike-related incidents.
Quad bikes are now the leading cause of non-intentional injury death on Australian farms and around 1,400 people are seriously injured in quad bike incidents each year.
Coroner Webster found Jocelyn would likely have survived if she had been wearing a seatbelt, which would have prevented her being ejected during the rollover.
The ATV also lacked cabin nets or doors, despite these being recommended in the vehicle’s operator’s manual.
“The Greens will continue to press for the coroners’ recommendations to be implemented, to save lives,” O’Connor said.
