The Road Safety Authority (RSA) has urged parents to not gift quad bikes or scramblers to children for Christmas.
According to statistics from the RSA, 38% of people injured in incidents involving quad bikes or scramblers in the period 2017 to 2021 were aged 18 or younger.
The RSA has partnered with the Gardaí and Keith Synnott, a consultant at the National Spinal Injuries Unit in the Mater Hospital, to highlight that quad bikes and scramblers pose a safety risk to children, and to call on parents not to gift them.
Between 2017 and 2021, 88 people were injured in collisions involving a quad bike or scrambler on a public road. In the same period, there were four fatalities involving quad bikes or scramblers on public roads.
Commenting, Synnott said: “Quad bikes and scramblers are not toys. They have heavy, dangerous pieces of machinery that can cause life-changing injuries or death.
“Following a collision on these machines, riders risk serious spinal injury. This could result in paralysis,” he warned.
Synnott highlighted that impacts on these vehicles often happen on unstable ground, especially in the hands of children, leading to riders landing awkwardly or the vehicle landing on top of the rider.
“The dangers these machines pose means that they are not suitable gifts for children,” he said.
Hildegarde Naughton, Minister of State at the Department of Transport, said that the misuse of quad bikes and scramblers “is an ongoing public safety issue across Ireland”.
According to Minister Naughton, the Road Traffic and Roads Bill 2021, which is currently before the Seanad, will allow prosecution for dangerous driving on all terrain, rather than just a public place.
Sam Waide, the CEO of the RSA, commented: “It is important that parents and members of the public are aware of the risks associated with quad bikes and scramblers.
“They are intended to be driven by people in a supervised and controlled environment who understand the threat when driven on uneven ground.
“If you are planning on purchasing a quad bike, scrambler or e-scooter for a child this Christmas, we are urging you to reconsider and give safer gifts,” Waide added.
Assistant garda commissioner Paula Hilman, who is responsible for national roads policing and community engagement, said: “Members of An Garda Síochána do not want to be delivering devastating news this Christmas so our message is clear. Children and young teenagers should not be driving these vehicles in public.”