Coroner at wit's end over quad bike safety | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

Coroner Ian Smith is ''at his wit's end'' with Kiwi attitudes to quad bike safety and promises a ''robust line'' in his findings on the death of Filipino beekeeper Jody Santos at Riversdale in 2008.
''You're going to get a bit of a lashing because, quite frankly, I'm sick of it,'' Mr Smith said, addressing a Labour Department health and safety inspector on hand to give evidence at the Masterton District Court yesterday into the 21-year-old's death.
The inquest was attended by Jody's father, Julius Dela-Rosa Santos, who, alongside his wife, works for Tauranga-based PA and SC Steens Honey's Masterton operation as a specialist in rearing queen bees.
In March, the company admitted the death was avoidable and was fined $78,000 and ordered to pay Jody's parents $60,000 in reparation after a department prosecution.
Jody's legal guardian when he died was Ryan Soriano who, speaking on behalf of the Santos family, agreed with Mr Smith's call for tougher legislation governing the use of ATV quad bikes.
''Legislation will be needed and we need to use Jody's death as an example and, of course, the coroner's recommendations need to be lobbied seriously _ particularly by our own MP, John Hayes, who needs to advocate this one,'' Mr Soriano said.
The inquest heard that Jody had been to check hives after being given basic instructions on how to use a quad bike and had taken to the road without a helmet on the unwarranted bike which had been borrowed from a local farmer, when he crashed at Homewood Rd on the morning of August 19, 2008.
He was found by co-workers near the overturned vehicle about noon and taken to Wellington Hospital where he died three days later.
The police crash investigation report found that neither mechanical problems nor excessive speed were to blame for the crash and the most important factor was likely to have been low tyre pressure _ set for steep, soft farm terrain _ the deflated tyres gripping the sealed, public road helping overturn the bike as Jody took a corner.
With 17 years of experience as a coroner, Mr Smith told the inquest he was raised in a rural environment and had an engineering background before launching into an impassioned tirade against the nation's lax attitudes to quad bike safety.
''I don't know what I have to do to get this sorted _ I'm seriously at my wit's end,'' he said.
He called current legislation a ''mish-mashing mess'' between farming interests and average road users.
He called for minimum safety requirements for quad bikes including full or partial roll bars, lap belts and the compulsory use of safety helmets.
''For goodness sake, why can we not get these three simple, lifesaving things on a quad bike?'' he asked.
Department health and safety inspector Russell Young told the inquest he had noticed a definite change in the culture of safety surrounding quad bikes, especially among young farmers _ a shift he said was down to the efforts of agricultural schools such as Wairarapa's Taratahi Agricultural Institute.
It is not known when his findings will be released but, at the end of the hearing, Mr Smith offered his condolences to Jody's family.
''It's time it's sorted out and enforced _ I don't want to see people like Mr Santos coming here for a totally preventable death.''