Things we can do to make farms safe

Q&A with Pat Griffin, HSA

For a young child, a farmyard can seem like some fantastic adventure playground. They just don’t see the dangers. So we are asking farmers... to make safe anything that might be a hazard

*Q. I understand you have just initiated a new campaign to highlight the potential dangers to children on the farm Pat. What are your aims?

>>A. “There’s great cause for concern at the moment. Two children dead in separate farm accidents recently, tragedies that shouldn’t have happened. We’ve been struggling for years to make farms safer places for children and we are increasing those efforts with our latest campaign. Child safety just has to be better managed.”

*Q. It is made more difficult isn’t it by the fact that the farm is often home for growing families as well as being a busy and potentially dangerous workplace?

>>A. “Yes. Unpredictable animals and heavy, fast-moving machinery are just two of the hazards to be safely negotiated. We want to focus on highlighting the particular dangers that children on a farm can encounter. And so we have to look at this from a child’s perspective. For a young child a farmyard can seem like some fantastic adventure playground. They just don’t see the dangers. So we are asking farmers to take another long look at their yards and barns and make safe anything that might possibly be a hazard to children.”

*Q. There are many farm accidents, some serious, that are never reported. And some of them would involve children. What are the most common causes of accidents to young people?

>>A. ” There are three major causes of accidents involving children on farms:

“Tractor and machinery accidents, which are responsible for 60% of fatalities. Children should never ever ride on a tractor.

”Drowning... Slurry pits can be death traps if a child loses a ball or just trips over and falls into one. It could be hours before they are found.

“Falls... Children climbing up onto bales and jumping off them, or climbing on unattended machinery and falling from a height.

The HSA are advising farmers with children who are under five to establish a secure play area for them, and to explain the ground rules for safe play when they are outside clearly so that they understand where all the no-go areas are, and to do that at as early an age as possible.”

*Q. What about older children?

>>A. “We believe that older children’s play should be supervised too, particularly at this time of the year. It’s the last few weeks of the school holidays and an especially busy time on farms. There are silage and grain contractors in and out, a lot of coming and going, machinery that can be very large and have several blind spots. The operators aren’t always able to see or hear children at play. We’d also remind farmers to remove ladders and gates that are not in use and to always be sure that they dismantle forks or buckets when they are parking machinery. If we can sort these things out, the farm would be a much safer place.” >

*Q. Will you be taking this important message to the schools when they reopen in September?

>>A. “We will. We already do a lot of awareness training in schools around the country. It’s very important that farm children are constantly aware of the special environment that they live in and the dangers that could face them if they are playing too near the slurry pit, for instance. The highest proportion of deaths in the workplace occurs on farms. Being extra careful is to everybody’s benefit. But children don’t always see the dangers even after they have been pointed out to them. Tractors in particular are always a great draw but we know from our inspectors who follow up on accidents that tractors are also the most common cause of child-related accidents on farms”

*Q. What advice do you give to tractor drivers at this busy time of year?

>>A. ” You’d see a lot of teenagers driving tractors on our roads at this time of year. And we would say to any farmer or contractor who is thinking of hiring a young lad to make sure that they are over sixteen, have the proper license and to satisfy yourself that they are safety conscious and responsible road-users, I would also plead that those who hire them, don’t overwork them. When the weather’s good, there’s a great urge to get the work done while you can. But please don’t work them sixteen, seventeen hours a day until they are so fatigued that they could easily have an accident. One young lad who had been working for too many hours turned his tractor over on the road and it landed on top of a car and killed someone. It’s just not worth it. Better instead to hire two lads and split the work. It’s up to us all to take extra precautions on the road while there’s a lot of agricultural machinery on the move, and to keep an especially close eye on the children.”