A 16-year-old boy has been found dead hours after being reported missing by family members following a quad bike accident at Wynyard, in Tasmania’s north-west.
Tasmania Police said they were contacted on Wednesday afternoon after family members could not find the teen.
It took until the next day for a search to find the boy, who had been involved in what police said was a single quad bike crash on Minnies Road.
“A search then located the male down an embankment in the early hours of this morning [Thursday],” police said in a statement.
“This incident is currently being investigated by Western Crash Investigation Services.”
Police said Minnies Road and Smith Road Wynyard would be closed while emergency services were at the scene.
Teens dying in quad bike accidents
The quad bike death follows that of another teenager in the same region late last year.
In November last year a 16-year-old boy died in a quad bike crash at Oldina, south of Wynyard, while a 16-year-old female passenger was injured.
A 14-year-old girl died in a Polaris 4×4 side-by-side vehicle crash at a private property at Bridgewater, north of Hobart, in February this year.
In a 2016 inquest into seven Tasmanian quad bike deaths, coroner Simon Cooper called for a ban on children under the age of 16 from operating adult-sized quad bikes.
He found helmets were not often widely used in rural settings because they were regarded as “unnecessary, impractical and uncomfortable” and he called for mandatory training and licensing measures.
WorkSafe Tasmania says quad bike deaths are “one of the leading causes of death and serious injury on Australian farms and are a significant cause of death and injury for recreational users”.
The safety body said many deaths were caused by rollovers, which can happen even at low speeds.
In 2021, Australia introduced a new safety standard requiring all new and imported second-hand quad bikes to have rollover protection at the point of sale.
But it is not mandatory that quad bikes already sold and operating around Australia be retrofitted.
WorkSafe provides a safety fact sheet and guide with advice for best-practice use of quad bikes.
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