While everyone knows an All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) by its popular "quad bike" moniker, farmers know these are not toys.
In the hands of the untrained or overconfident, they can be deadly.
ATV safety is far from an exclusive agricultural problem.
According to ACC, in 2008-09, there were 417 ATV-related claims.
Of these, 51 were road accidents, 207 were non-work, or other, while 159 were work-related.
In other words, work-related ATV incidents represented 38% of the claims.
The entire agricultural sector knows it needs to do better, but perspective is also needed.
In 2009, the home toll (people accidentally killed in their own home) registered 621 deaths according to ACC - more than 50% higher than the corresponding road toll.
While 18,600 people were injured in farm-related accidents in 2009 - on average one every 34 minutes - 632,920 people were injured in their home - on average one every 54 seconds.
No-one is calling for a Warrant of Bathrooms, but I fear that sort of idea is forming in a policy analyst's mind.
Both Federated Farmers and the Agriculture Health and Safety Council stress education is the solution, aided by technology.
Farmers know they have a strict duty of care, rammed home by successful health and safety in employment prosecutions.
We have to ensure any ATV user is trained or proficient in their operation.
While the most dangerous single farm implement is arguably an ATV, they are horse, utility vehicle and tractor combined.
They have become a farmer's Swiss Army knife, explaining the more than 90,000 of them around.
Some accidents might be nervously laughed off at the end of the day, followed by a reflective, "I was damned lucky", but for 46 farmers last year it ended in serious injury, and for five it was tragically worse.
In response, some people, including the Wellington coroner, have called for mandatory roll over protection systems with harnesses, but Federated Farmers is not so sure.
Unlike Australia, farming here poses a greater challenge due to undulating terrain, rocks and stumps.
Some of our members have developed aftermarket alternatives, like T-bars, that may have a safety role to play.
Yet almost all commercial users of ATVs are in agreement roll cages and harnesses might increase injury risk.
As with a motorcycle, you have to actively ride an ATV, so a harness would make this impossible.
One scenario that gives me shivers is an ATV rolling downhill and on to a stump with the user restrained. Roll cages also fundamentally change an ATV's centre of gravity, making a bad situation worse.
Federated Farmers is looking at warning systems because a University of Otago study published last year found that those with a tendency to steer uphill, instead of downhill while traversing a left-facing slope, had the most accidents.
The study asked if tilt warning systems would reduce accidents, bearing in mind the biggest determinant is human behaviour.
No amount of safety training, equipment or procedure will overcome bravado.
Operating an ATV, you can sometimes become so fixated on a task you become oblivious to a precarious situation you might be entering.
Yet inclinometers and clinometers have been around for centuries. Instead of advocating for roll over protection systems and harnesses, which shows a lack of understanding about how ATVs are used, perhaps tilt-warning systems could become part of a wider solution.
Federated Farmers has been in contact with an American company which manufactures a warning switch weighing just 85 grams.
Connected to a lamp or audible warning alarm, it is designed to indicate unsafe conditions like a potential roll-over.
Multiple trip settings can be arranged to indicate caution, before a final alarm near the point of no return, a bit like a car's reversing sensor.
This device was designed for off-road, in-motion vehicles operating in high vibration or rough terrain.
In other words, the environment farmers work in daily. The University of Otago study also found that vibration might disturb a user's natural sense of balance.
Having a warning system that cuts through this would help warn of danger, especially in rough terrain.
Yet there needs to be a further examination into recreational accidents that form the majority of claims.
As ATVs are a farm implement, it is untenable for every ATV incident to be classed as a farm accident.
My final message is therefore this: No amount of regulation or overt safety devices will overcome a gung-ho invincibility, as Otago University found.
Instead, cultural change requires ongoing education and training.
With this, Federated Farmers is on the same page as ACC, Farmsafe and the Department of Labour.
Donald Aubrey is vice-president of Federated Farmers and chairman of Agricultural Health and Safety Council.
