Nelson Weekly Your Community Newspaper
Tuesday 22 January 2013
Healthy Living
A whiff of our wine Page 6
Concerns over quad bike safety Phillip Rollo
Authorities say they will take tougher measures to prevent further quad bike accidents, after yet another incident last week. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has indicated that it will take a firmer line on safety breaches during its current nation-wide safety campaign, where spot checks are made to hundreds of farms across the country, because all workplace accidents are “concerning” and the figures are still too high compared to that of other farm vehicles. Its decision comes in the wake of numerous quad bike accidents across the country during the summer period, with the latest occurring last week when a 23 year old Rai Valley man was flown to Nelson Hospital after it was believed he crashed into a ditch.
According to the New Zealand Herald earlier this month, Wellington Coroner Ian Smith voiced frustration over the quad bike safety issues and called on the government to investigate making helmets, lap belts and roll bars compulsory. Nelson Weekly spoke with three local authorities to understand their concerns on how users could operate their machinery in a safer fashion and asked whether it really was that unsafe to ride a quad bike, despite there being zero on-farm quad bike related deaths in Nelson during the past five years. Carl Doocey from Morley’s Motorcycle and Marine said while wearing helmets saved lives, it was also up to the operator to use their common sense, which included the speeds it travelled at across the farm. Federated Farmers Nelson president Gavin
SEE PAGE 2
Falcons win 8-0
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Page 23
Rough and tumble of rodeo
SHE’S OFF: Hira’s Zara Keeler comes off second best during the junior calf ride at the Richmond Rodeo on Saturday. Photo: Phillip Rollo. Richmond Rodeo organisers are praising another top crowd, saying it went close to beating previous attendance records. Secretary Tina Angus-Phyn says the official number of tickets sold were yet to be counted, but feedback from the cowboys was very positive. “They said what a cool crowd Richmond was, they get involved, they just loved it,” says Tina. “From that aspect it was
probably a better crowd than ever before.” Tina admits seeing the spills is often a crowd favourite as dozens of the country’s top cowboys put their bodies on the line atop of some of the most bucking broncos and bulls around. “They want to see the action and see people live their dreams. Who wants to jump off a horse and wrestle a steer? It’s just amazing,” says the barrel racer.
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