Ageism hasn't slowed Ken Tuckey down - with a sense of humour (he calls his Coolah residence Kentucky), this 60-something man walks the walk - or in this case straddles the quad.

Three quarters of his way on a quad bike or All Terrain Vehicle anti-clockwise around Australia, almost four months after starting, he has now reached South Australia on a trip to raise funds for the Children's Cancer Institute (on previous adventures hehas raised more than $200 thousand) and to promote quad bike safety.

In an agricultural context, the highest risk group, nationally, is older ATV riders - 45-64 year old men - but that reflects the median ages of Australia's farmers, so doesn't decrease the importance of educating young riders.

Known statistics reflect 60 deaths of ATV riders between 2000 and 2005.

Ken encountered riders in the Northern Territory - not quite the role models he was searching for - "stripping whatever might fall off quads as big as 750cc, rigging them with Mad Max style bull bars and chasing down wild cattle with them."

On this trip he's not sure that his message about quad bikes dangers is getting through.

In the time he's been travelling, there have been at least two recorded deaths on quad bikes - one  a farmer not wearing a helmet in Queensland, thrown when wire wrapped around and locked up the front wheel of his ATV.

In Wilmington, SA, near Port Augusta, two brothers told by their parents not to ride on the road did - the 15 year old driving, his 12 year old passenger behind.

In a collision with a car, the younger brother died.

This story appears Agriculture Today.