A LEADING surgeon in spinal injuries has called for the use of quad bikes to be controlled after witnessing the damage they have caused to many users.
Staff at Scotland's national unit for the treatment of traumatic spinal injury, based at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital, say their beds are increasingly filled with patients injured in accidents using the machines.
The warning follows deaths and high-profile accidents involving celebrities such as Rik Mayall and Ozzy Osbourne.
In May 2010, nine-year-old Robert McAlister died after falling from a quad bike at his family's farm in Rothesay, Argyll and Bute.
The powerful machines weigh up to 65 stone and experts believe they are a potential lethal weapon.
David Allan, consultant orthopaedic surgeon and director of the Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Injuries Unit, said: "We are seeing too many injuries that are unnecessary and have a devastating effect on the individual and family concerned."
In 2010, health and safety inspectors found two-thirds of the 58 Scottish farms they visited were using all- terrain vehicles such as quad bikes in an unsafe manner.
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