SCOTLAND’S biggest retailer of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), John Yuille jnr, of ATV Services Scotland, has launched a safety campaign to encourage all farmers to think safety first when using such vehicles.

“A helmet is to cover your head, not your backside,” he told The Scottish Farmer. “We sell helmets, but not nearly as many as we should. We regularly get a phone call that normally starts ‘we have an HSE inspection coming and we need to get a helmet for the bike’.

“Once we ask what shape, colour, style and size is required, the answer normally comes back, ‘what’s the cheapest’. What this tells us is that this helmet is for show, rather than use. These small inexpensive items have been irrefutably proven to save lives, but only if you wear it,” pointed out Mr Yuille.

“There have been campaigns before to try and encourage our type of customers to wear helmets both by national charities, HSE and government, and although we appreciate the sentiment, we did not support these campaigns directly, given that they suggested that the ‘bicycle type’ helmet as supplied by some companies was the answer to the problem. This is something we simply to not agree with,” he said.

Some ATV helmets are manufactured to EN1078:2012, which is the standard for bicycle and skateboard helmets. “It does not take an ATV genius to know that an accident on an vehicle that can travel up to 70mph and weigh up to 400kg has a higher potential for serious injury than a bicycle or skateboard. Yes, these helmets might well keep the HSE happy, but they stand a much lesser chance of actually protecting you,” said Mr Yuille.

“If you are going to take your safety seriously, buy a proper helmet, one suitable for the vehicle your staff, family or even you are operating.

“A customer once said to me ‘if you’ve got a four-bob heid, buy a four-bob helmet’. This might be lost on some of our younger customers but what he was saying was that he buys and uses a quality helmet to protect his most valuable asset and we want you to do the same.

“So, with National Farm Safety week this week, we have launched our new ‘Don’t forget your helmet’ campaign. We shall encourage every single customer to wear a quality helmet that will offer superior protection and all our new and used ATVs shall be supplied with a sticker to encourage you to remember your helmet every time you ride.”

From now, every new utility ATV sold from ATV Services Scotland will come with a voucher to cover the cost of a suitable helmet per ATV and UTV – and there’s a 50% discount on helmets with a used machine sold retail. The scheme is being administrated by the company's aftersales department and ordered via www.atvservices.com

“For customer who are not purchasing an ATV or UTV at the moment, we offer a range or helmets starting as low as £50 (no VAT),” added Mr Yuille. “We care about our customers and friends, and want to encourage them to think about safety first and not just in this, Farm Safety Week, but always. As a leading supplier of ATVs, we feel duty bound to take the lead in user safety.”

  • For further advice please contact Aisling Logan (aftersales manager) on 01292 560239 or email info@atvservices.com