Quad Bikes on Koh Samui

Last November Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson ventured to Botswana and experienced Quad Bikes.
Here is a quote:

“Now, the quad bike has had a fair degree of bad press in recent years. First of all, we had Rik Mayall damn nearly killing himself when his turned over and then, more recently, poor old Ozzy Osbourne breaking what's left of his body in two when his pulled a wheelie, throwing him off the back.

If you want to kill your children, there's no quicker way that I can see than buying them one of those 50cc jobbies you sometimes see at garden centres. My son went on one the other day and in less than two minutes, he and it were in the swimming pool.”

The full article can be found here
http://www.topgear.com/content/features/stories/2006/11/stories/02/1.html
What on earth are they doing now on the roads of Koh Samui? Over recent weeks more and more of these machines have been seen zooming round the island with the riders for some reason believing that they are safer than the two wheeled death traps popular with locals and tourists alike. Koh Samui has a high enough accident rate without adding the false sense of security that these vehicles appear to give people. Not only that, but I have yet to see one with a licence plate, nor have I seen a tax disc and I suspect therefore no insurance.

During the Second World War, that work horse of the US Army the Jeep had a great reputation for its ability off-road, but the opposite on-road where it killed many GI’s due to its inability to turn corners at speed. These Quad Bikes seem to have similar characteristics and I wonder how long it will be before we see them adding to the island’s statistics.