Farm Safety Week again

THIS week is set aside for tackling the never-ending tragedy of farm deaths and injuries.
Farm Safety Week again

National Farm Safety Week comes around again after six years in which the death toll in the “Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry” category averaged 20, and was never less than 16.

Farmers may ask themselves how it could happen; the answer is that it can happen very easily.

A quick look through the causes of death for just two years reveals how dangerous everyday farm tasks are for the unwary.

It could happen by falling, getting tangled in a PTO shaft, electrocution from milking equipment or fallen wires, getting caught in moving machine parts, falling off a ladder, being struck by a gate in stormy conditions or by a bolting animal, being crushed by tractors or attached machines, injury while cutting trees, overturning of tractors, or being gored by a bull.

It could happen even easier to a child, just from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, perhaps while trees are being cut, vehicles or machines are being driven quickly, or cattle are being herded.

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) can draw some consolation from the reduced death toll of only 14 in 2004.

Unfortunately, for the two previous years, the average was 22.

And there have already been five farm deaths in 2005, after just three months, and there may be more by the time you read this.

This week, the Authority has four themes for Farm Safety Week: safety for the elderly, completion of farm safety self assessment documents, tractor maintenance, and machine guarding (especially of PTO shafts).

The authority has kept up to date with trends in the farming sector, issuing a new multi-lingual health and safety guide for the horticultural industry, which employs many migrant workers, and giving special advice on the safe use of all-terrain vehicles, estimated to be involved in more than 1,000 serious injury accidents per year in the UK.

The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill due to be enacted this year will make it easier for farmers to comply with safety laws, by adhering to a special code of practice to be developed by the HSA.

Nevertheless, one can perhaps look to decoupling as the main factor which could save lives on farms in the coming years, by reducing the work load for farmers, as many opt to cut down livestock numbers or acres of crops.

A reduction in the Irish annual farming output of about e5 billion wouldn’t be good for the economy or the food processing industry, but it would make things easier for the shrinking population of farmers and farm workers, which has been falling by about 7,000 annually in recent years.

It’s probably no coincidence that farming and construction shared a death toll of 29 last year. Both are industries with a heavy workload and a shortage of labourers.

In the ideal world, decoupling could help both sectors, by reducing the farm work load and freeing up some farmers to work in the lucrative construction sector.

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