IT WAS a split-second lapse that plunged her loved ones into grief and thrust the issue of quad bike safety back into the national spotlight.
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On November 20, 2011, 34-year-old Angela Stackman was spraying weeds on her Niangala property when she lost control of her quad on a slope and careened out of control.
She was later found dead by her husband, pinned against a tree near where the quad bike rolled.
Her death sparked a torrent of sadness and forced authorities to again look at how to stop the quad bike carnage. In the decade to 2012, 170 people lost their lives riding quad bikes on Australian farms.
They were real people, like Angela Stackman, not just numbers. Many of them were children.
Only those who have lost a loved one in an accident can truly appreciate the sense of shock that accompanies it.
Quad bikes are a tool of the trade for those on the land, so residents in our region are even more exposed to the lurking dangers.
The loss of life on quad bikes is both atrocious and unacceptable.
It is incumbent on manufacturers, farmers and farming groups to do all they can to reverse this tide of needless death. They must start a collective conversation about how to mitigate the risks and stop the waste of life.
Lawmakers, too, must accept the terrible toll quad bikes are having in the bush and act accordingly.
This week, a coronial inquest into the death of Mrs Stackman and seven others commenced in Sydney.
While no findings have yet been made, it is hoped the inquest will offer a suite of recommendations that could be later adopted into law.
One is a no-brainer – making wearing helmets compulsory.
The inquest will also focus on design and safety issues, and the role “user error” played in the deaths.
We live in an over-regulated society and we should resist the push to put regulations before personal responsibility. But the quad bike death toll is already too high.
Decisive and swift action is needed.