University of Otago researchers analysing quad bike driver behaviour have found vital new information that could help reduce the continuing high rate of accidents and deaths on the vehicles. In a study involving 30 farm workers using quad bikes in South Otago, researchers at the University's School of Physiotherapy found that those with a tendency to steer uphill, instead of downhill while traversing a left-facing slope, had the most accidents reports voxy.co. Study co-author Dr Stephan Milosavljevic says in examining the ergonomics, the problem of retaining stability on the quad bike in this up-hill, left-slope situation was compounded because the driver had to use their right hand to operate the bike's throttle on the right of the bike. "In that situation, it is much more difficult for the person to turn uphill while holding the throttle," he says. "Farmers who instinctively already know about this problem will say if you are on a left-facing slope and you have to turn, turn downhill. It is much safer." In the past ten years, 48 people in NZ have died as a result of accidents on quad bikes. After car accidents, they are the second highest cause of vehicle-related deaths in the rural community. The Otago researchers set out to analyse the driving behaviour of people who regularly use quad bikes, recognising a need to find out why people lose control of them so frequently. Of the 30 male rural workers and farmers studied, 19 of them, or 63 percent, had experienced loss of control on a quad bike. They were in their mid 40s on average, and about eight to nine years younger and less experienced than those who did not lose control. Those who lost control traversed left- facing slopes differently to those who had not come off, tending to drift uphill. The study, the first to show such findings, has recently been published in the journal Ergonomics. Co-author Dr Allan Carman used a device known as a tri-axial accelerometer, which measures tilt relative to gravity, to analyse the roll and pitch level of the quad bike for each worker during a full working day.
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