THE death of a boy, 11, in a quad bike accident over the weekend has added weight to calls to make the vehicles safer.

Thirteen people have now died in quad bike accidents in Australia so far this year, and this latest is the second of a child under 16 in just four months.

The weekend's death was on a farm north of Murwillumbah, NSW, where the boy was riding.

A NSW Police spokesman said the country where the boy was killed was "undulating, but not hilly" and he had been riding on a track.

The boy's father found him pinned beneath the ATV.

The boy died at the scene.

Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety director Dr Tony Lower said the lives of the boy's family and friends "would be changed forever".

"This incident again illustrates the dangers associated with quad bikes," Dr Lower said.

"We know from information collected over the past 10 years that just under half of all quad-bike deaths involve the bike rolling over."

ATV manufacturers should spend more money on research and development to cut death rates, according to the NSW Farmers Association. Industrial committee chair Graham Morphett told delegates at its annual general meeting last week that it was time manufacturers made ATVs safer.

"Manufacturers have not been helpful in progressing better safety designs for their quad bikes," he said.

"Their stance is 'It's the farmers' fault they ride the bikes outside our recommended guidelines'."

But Mr Morphett said that was simply not the case.

"The statistics show that many deaths happened in the farmer's daily farming routine, at low speed," he said.

"We call on the manufacturers to invest more of their research and development funds into developing and fitting a roll bar that will provide crush protection, at the time of sale of the new bike."

Anti-crush bar manufacturer Dave Robertson, from Quad Bar Industries, said he had approached manufacturers individually and through the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, to talk about safety.

"I would be happy to work with the manufacturers, but they say they aren't interested," he said.

FCAI motorcycle manager Rhys Griffiths said both research and development spending and direction was a "closely guarded secret of each manufacturer".

"My guess is they may be spending money on things like active suspension, which helps the stability of the ATV.

"But a roll bar or crush bar is probably not under development," he said.