Happy New Year! Food for thought, or cause for a hangover

James Allan writes in the Quadrant about his passion for free speech. James is right when he thinks former Chief Justice of the NSW Supreme Court was a bit limp in his recent Oration. GC.Ed.

Friend, foe, men, women, listen to this. I come to query Mr. Spigelman, not to praise him.

Read more:http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/allan/2012/12/spigelman-s-gag-reflex

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To herald the New Year, media and self-appointed experts are attacking the death rate caused by Quad bikes. One death is too many. But, accidents do and will continue to happen. Now they want to bans and re-engineering to the machines. Nothing about parental responsibility and teaching. There are about 220,000 quad bikes in use. Over 11 years 160 people have been killed. Is 0.0065% enough for legislators to make law that can't be enforced? Ask a farmer. GC. Ed.

Death sparks call for quad bike ban

FARM health and safety advocates are pushing for a total ban on children riding quad bikes following the death of a seven-year-old girl in South Australia.

Seventeen people died riding quad bikes last year, while 23 deaths were recorded in 2011. There have been more than 160 quad-bike-related deaths since 2001.

Read more:http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/death-sparks-call-for-quad-bike-ban/story-e6frg6nf-1226545872626

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The Greens of this world have rushed to intensive care! GC. Ed.

Kyoto climate change treaty sputters to a sorry end

Kyoto Protocol aimed for 5% cut in carbon emissions — instead, we got a 58% increase

Read more:http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/12/20/pol-kyoto-protocol-part-one-ends.html

 

Comments

[Linne]

1.

I watched a programme on telly last night about quad bikes in the wake f the latest accident. I was astounded that all that appeared to be happening was a hysterical headlong dash to regulate, legislate, control and ban.

I would have expected an academic of worthwhile standing to come out in favour of training, but instead an academic boofhead, Professor Sabina Knight, is calling for the idiotic nanny state solution of an outright ban on children riding quad bikes, even child sized quad bikes. Not one of the mainly self-appointed experts even mentioned training.

[Grantley]

2.

First....I have never ridden a Quad bike. BUT, I have ridden motorbikes, on & off road for some 40+ years.

I also owned and rode a trike for awhile, but got rid of it as it became apparent it was simply dangerous in the wrong hands.

I think the Quad bike suffers the same issues as the Trike (3 wheeler).

When learning on a motor bike your self preservation instinct cuts in quite quickly and that tends to govern your speed and decision making, because you know you can (& will) fall off; as you become more adept and confident those parameters get widened. When you do come off a bike in an off road situation you generally have a good chance of getting away from the bike (if you cant stay with it) and choosing your "escape path" so to speak. Learning to roll (from falling/thrown off horses before I got my first bike helped me a lot)is a big factor.

What I observed with the trike (a 200cc Honda, heavy & powerful)was that learners would get on it and immediately go fast, much faster than they would have on a motor bike. I guess they felt "safe" with 3 wheels under them. The problem came when they wanted to turn to avoid something, trikes require a different, un-natural, body action to make them turn and the inexperienced rider crashed.

I suspect this is the same issue with Quad bikes, the 4 wheels gives the inexperienced rider a false sense of security and they travel at speeds far higher than they should, and when they come to grief it is not an easy task to roll away from the machine. Whilst I do not know the injury stats from quad bikes I would hazard a guess that kneck, spine and crush injuries are the greatest killers as the rider gets caught up in the roll.

My sympathies to the family involved, they would be feeling pretty low about now.

So, what can be done? Bans are knee jerk nonsense, roll cages should be mandatory and training essential across all ages, because kids will ride them.

[RossCO]

3.

More lives could be saved by cutting trees down next to our roads - Car hits tree resulting in (multiple fatalities) happens all the time, but we all know trees are more important than humans in our green obsessed world