Bullbars and Australian Design Rule 42.9.1

The Australian Design Rule 42.9.1 states:

"No vehicle shall be equipped with any object or fitting, not technically essential which protrudes from any part of the vehicle so that it is likely to increase the risk of bodily injury to any person."

So why are the "responsible" Authorities and their Licensed Agents regularly Inspecting and Approving vehicles for registration fitted with bullbars which either protrude from any part of any vehicle and/or are likely to increase the risk of bodily injury to any person?

But in particular:

	vehicles fitted with knifelike fishing-rod holders which would penetrate an adult pedestrian at heart-height or a child at face-height (and other sharp and dangerous protrusions such as winches and spotlights)
	police vehicles from the Accident Investigation Unit
	utilities with bullbars built like battering rams
	taxis which are not permitted outside the metropolitan area
	police vehicles which also never travel outside the suburbs
	4WD's carrying outboard motors attached to their bullbars with rope

FORS estimates that bull bar involvement in fatal pedestrian crashes could be as high as 20%

Apart from the extraordinary and inordinate amount of death, injury, grief and suffering caused by bullbars to pedestrians and the occupants of motor vehicles (let alone the damage to property), the former Federal Office of Road Safety (FORS), now the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) expressed their serious concerns about these devices.

The study states (quote):

ROAD SAFETY REPORT CR200

Bull Bars and Road Trauma

December 2000

"ESTIMATION OF EXTRA RISK

There have been several different approaches in the literature in estimating the contribution of bullbars to road casualty statistics. A short report by FORS (Monograph 7, 1996) examined Australian fatal crash data for pedestrians for the year 1992. It states that bullbars were involved in 12% of fatal pedestrian crashes in 1992, but it was estimated that bull bar involvement could be as high as 20%, due to the large amount of missing information on bull bar status in the Fatality Crash Database."

ATSB: Valuable information about pedestrian accidents and injuries.

Bullbars such as these supplied by companies such as Bluey's Ute World, trading as Sickpuppy Custom Bullbars, are potentially lethal:

https://www.blueys.com.au/acc-sickpuppy.htm

Motorists fitting such bullbars to their vehicles should be on notice that they could be subject to heavy penalties, defect notices and significant damages and injury claims.

Any motorist considering attaching a bullbar to his or her vehicle should ensure the bullbar complies with Australian Standard AS4876.1-2002.

https://www.walk.com.au/pedestriancouncil/page.asp?PageID=458&SiteID=1

The PCA will be lobbying state, territory and federal governments to have the respective laws vigorously enforced and bullbars which do not comply with the Australian Standard, banned from sale.