Came accross this on a foreign site and had to share:
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Quad safety Statistics...
Noel Edmonds has made a big thing about quad safety in the last few weeks, and while I do not dispute his figures in any way I do feel it is important to show that any one can show any thing by carefully picking statistics especially if you have a product to sell.

Noel Edmonds claims and this is a quote "Also it is estimated that in 2002 over 4,000 people were taken to hospital as a result of accidents on Killer Quads! (figures from HSC and RoSPA)"

I now have the complete figures from the same source and have selected a few so you can decide for yourself. Just as in the case with the quads all figures are based on a large study of hospitals and then extrapolated to give a national estimate. Just like the quad figure all numbers are for injuries involving the item and not always as a result of the item as Noel Edmonds claims.


Light Bulb = 3608 injuries
Television = 10004 injuries
Coffee Table = 20091 injuries
Curtains = 4224 injuries
Cup or Mug of Tea/Coffee = 15909 injuries
Dustbin/Wheelie Bin = 7893 injuries
Secateurs/pruners = 4429 injuries
Flower Pot = 5948 injuries
Bus/Coach = 19762 injuries
Tennis-type ball = 5126 injuries
Skateboard/snakeboard = 39361 injuries
Bouncing Castle = 9738 injuries
Ice Skate = 9062 injuries
Climbing Frame = 21136 injuries
Socks/Tights/stockings = 13428 injuries
Chamber pot/Commode = 7073 injuries
Ride on Toy,rocking horse etc = 6766 injuries
Football/Basket ball = 281855 injuries
Baby/safety Gate = 7257 injuries
Car = 81754 injuries

What does all this mean...

This all means that if your job was selling or hiring bouncing castles you could use these figure to prove they are much safer than socks.

It would appear that a baby safety gate is 60% more dangerous than the "killer quad". (it's not of course).

Who would have thought that a coffee table would be involved in more hospital visits than bus or coach.

We tend not to hear car dealers claiming that their products are 3 times safer than footballs.

I have never seen a light bulb company warning of the dangers of opening those "killer curtains".

Of course all this means nothing, and I'm not saying quads are completely safe, but lets not get carried away with selective statistics. Quads are a motorised vehicle and just like all other machines require a certain amount of familiarisation and practice before they can be driven safely. If you have never been on one before and go flat out across uneven ground they can catch you out, but then so can any vehicle.

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One of my previous jobs was to perform statistic calculations as well. As a specialist in this field, I've proven many times that statistics can be twisted into many different forms. Either positive or negative. Rarely do they tell the complete truth! For example, compared against "total product base", compared against time, hour, day, month usage, compared against age usage, and compared against other factors. For example, how many accidents from Supervised (for the youth category), non-Supervised (for youths category), and how many with other factors. Such as, "drinking & driving" , age of driver, years of riding experience, size of machine, etc. etc.

Take for example the above posted "Secateurs/pruners = 4,429 injuries"

Here's a few questions this statistic doesn't show the reader:
- How many own prunners? re: total produce base.
- How often is prunners used? re: 4 times week, month or year. Heck, I use my prunners 1 every 3 years.
- How many accidents on weekends?
- How many accidents of weekdays?
- How many accidents from females?
- How many accidents from males?
- How many accidents from youths?
- How many from using prunners when someone is distracting them?
- How many from falling off the ladder, then landing on the prunners -> which is really a ladder accident.
- How many beers during a "hot day" before the operator got injured?
- How many from the folks who really read the usage manual?
* Like a guy thing, most plug in the equipment and pull the trigger.
- How many from folks who take a safety course?
* Not too sure if there's a safety course on prunners, but statistically "should there be a course due to liability law???".

And of course, how many prunning accidents on a weekday at 2:00 AM in the morning? Bet this statistic sample would be "zero". So statistically, this small sample shows that prunners aren't dangerious at all - compared to 2:00 AM automobile accidents.

If someone is going to quote statistics on quads, I'd like to see their complete categories. For example:
- How many were drugs / beer related?
- How many were riding alone? Especially for youth riders.
- How many were riding in a group of 2 or more people? re: yes, show off and "got caught up in the gang" influence thing.
- etc. etc.
And of course, all compared to the number of quads in use, overlayed against their hours of usage - subtract the racing quads factor.

Are quads dangerious? Yes they are. Just like a Swiss Army knife in the hands of a reckless individual. They can end your life. I just wish that other statistic specialsts would stop twisting their "wanted results" in order to make quads "appear to be extremely bad". Based on the above questions, how dangerious are they? That's the question that statistically many can't really truthfully prove!

Note: How many quad accidents between 4:00 AM -> 6:00 AM for ages 5-9 who were driving a 250cc -> 350cc size quad ??? Bet that statistical result is close to zero. Therefore, one could statistically prove that ages 5-9 year olds can drive daddy's Adult size quad at this time in the morning. Therefore, NO restriction laws are required. Something to think of!!!!

Note: I believe that every youth should take a safety driving course and use complete safety gear and use mandatory wireless communications (with their supervising adult). To me, this makes more common safety sence instead of trying to frighten others with negative statistical numbers.

Just my 2 cents....

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For more details on wireless communications - especially for yourth riders, surf the following:

http://www.hjc-chatterbox.com/

http://www.collett.mb.ca/

http://www.accessoryinternational.com/intercomnady.htm


Hope this helps...

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great posts you guys,well put. I completely agree with both of ya. And the bouncing castles vs. socks had me LMFAO!!