The person, machine, and system must be right to avoid farm fatalities

Mr Griffin said that with millions of calves being born in Ireland each year, “farmers generally do an excellent job and do protect themselves”. Picture: iStock

The agriculture sector continues to be the sector with the greatest number of fatalities in any one year, leading the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) to remain very concerned about safety issues on farms in Ireland.

HSA senior inspector for farm safety Pat Griffin said that he suspects agriculture is also the sector with the greatest number of non-fatal injuries, though there is a lack of supporting data.

“Farmers just don’t report injuries to us, but we do get that figure from the Teagasc National Farm Survey,” Mr Griffin said.

“We’ve got fairly reliable figures that, in any one year, you might have up to 4,500 serious farm accidents.

“We need to know what’s happening out there.”

Livestock

Within the non-fatal accidents, the biggest issue is livestock, Mr Griffin said.

According to the HSA, the key questions to ask whilst working with livestock include:

• Are handling facilities including calving boxes adequate for the herd size?
• Is there adequate lighting in the yard and farm buildings?
• Do you need help?
• Are the extra resources trained and experienced?
• Is there a plan in place to minimise the risk of attack?
• Is an adequate physical barrier established between the farmer and the freshly calved cow when tagging, treating, and handling calves?
• Are facilities and procedures adequate for separating, loading, and unloading animals?

“With livestock, any time you’re going to handle an animal or be in close quarters with an animal, you have to make sure that you’re not going to be in a crush zone, somewhere that you could be crushed up against a wall or the handling facility,” Mr Griffin stressed.

“You have to have proper handling facilities so that you can actually keep yourself safe and deal with the animal without getting in close quarters.”

The “biggest risk area” is with freshly calved animals, “going in and tagging them”, he said.

“We have had a campaign for years to try to get farmers to establish a good physical barrier between themselves and the cow while they’re tagging because when you tag a calf, the calf will bawl and the natural instinct of the mother is to attack to protect the calf,” Mr Griffin explained.

“Too many farmers think ‘well if I keep the calf between myself and the cow I’ll be safe’ — that has been proved wrong so many times when people have been killed.

“It’s all about being aware of the animal’s temperament, and the potential for risk and having an escape route and, where at all possible, having a separation between yourself and the animal.”

Mr Griffin said that with millions of calves being born in Ireland each year, “farmers generally do an excellent job and do protect themselves”.

Fatal farm accidents

In relation to fatal farm accidents, “it’s absolutely vehicles and vehicle movement and how they’re managing different types of vehicles on the farm” that is a significant problem, according to Mr Griffin.

The machines that “generally cause the fatalities” most often are tractors, followed by telehandlers and loaders, and quads, Mr Griffin said.

“Animals are unpredictable, vehicles are not unpredictable,” he said.

We should be able to control vehicles. There are three main areas that I always look at: the operator; the machine; the system of work.

Mr Griffin explained that the operator, the machine, and the system of work “must be right” to avoid fatalities.

“The operator must be competent, trained, well-rested, have the proper workwear on, and be fit for the job.”

The machine must be appropriate for the job, because “so many fatalities happen when people try to use a machine that wasn’t even designed for the job they’re trying to do”.

“Secondly, the machine must be properly maintained — brakes and steering are the two big issues with tractors,” Mr Griffin said.

“Having brakes and steering properly maintained is absolutely critical.”

Mr Griffin said that when any type of machinery is operating in the farm yard, it must become “an exclusion zone for people walking in the yard”.

“If anyone enters the yard, they have to make eye contact with the operator of the machine before they progress,” he continued.

“These machines are so powerful and they move so fast, they’ll be on you in a second.”

New quad regulations

Regulations governing the safe use of ATV/quad bikes in all workplaces come into effect on November 20, 2023.

These regulations have two significant requirements: that training is to be undertaken with a registered training provider to a QQI standard or equivalent for the use of these vehicles; and helmets must be worn by operators of the vehicles.

According to the HSA, the use of ATVs and quad bikes is becoming more and more common on farms, however, “there have been a significant number of fatalities involving quads, and the potential for a serious injury or fatality when using a quad is high”.

The HSA has outlined the main causes of serious or fatal injury associated with these vehicles, which include: being thrown off them during overturns or after loss of control; collisions with structures, trees, or other vehicles; being trapped/asphyxiated under an overturned machine; and pedestrians being struck or run over by them.

The factors that contribute to fatalities and injury with these vehicles include: the lack of formal operator training and/or experience; incorrect/lack of appropriate head protection; excessive speed; age of operator; and unbalanced loads or overloading.

Mr Griffin said that quads are “lethal”, and that there is “good acceptance” across industry that increased regulation is needed.

A “good number” of fatalities resulting from quad bike use could have been avoided “if people were wearing a helmet”, Mr Griffin said.

“Hopefully, with the training of quad operators, the number of fatalities and serious life-changing injuries that are happening will reduce very quickly,” he added.

VR quad bike experience

A virtual reality (VR) quad bike experience from FRS Training, aimed at improving farm safety, will be available at the National Ploughing Championships next week.

The VR experience will take the user across various agricultural scenarios and terrains such as the farm yard, herding cattle, rough and inclined ground, showing how these vehicles should be handled.

To help address the significant agricultural health and safety regulations coming in for quad bike use, FRS Training are rolling out a new training programme nationwide, running over two days and they will be QQI accredited.

Speaking about the programme, FRS Network group chief executive Colin Donnery said: “The use of quads on Irish farms continues to grow.

“These vehicles are becoming an increasingly popular choice for farmers as they are a useful and multipurpose vehicle for transport, spraying, spreading and a range of other work on the farm.

“Yet with this growth in usage, there are rising safety concerns around how they are being operated.”

13 fatalities in 2022

Farming had 13 work-related fatalities in 2022, with it remaining the sector with the highest number of fatalities.

In the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, there were a total of 34 vehicle-related fatalities on Irish farms, according to data from the Health and Safety Authority (HSA).

Of these 34, 18 involved tractors, and four involved quad bikes. Of the four involving quads, two involved children and two involved people over 60.

Of the 18 farm fatalities involving tractors, 10 involved people aged 65 or over.

Over the last 10 years, from 2013 to 2022, 191 people have lost their lives in farming-related work activity in Ireland, according to the HSA, and of these 34 involved livestock (18% of fatalities).

Vehicles were the cause of 86 (45%), falls were the cause of 22 (12%) deaths, while machinery was involved in 14 (7%), heavy load involved in 14 (7%), and drowning involved in 12 (6%).

Forty-seven percent of those who died were over the age of 65, 19% were between 55 and 64, and 11% were children.

Of the 86 vehicle fatalities, 46 or 53% involved tractors, 12 or 14% involved loaders/telehandlers, and 10 or 12% involved quads.

Last year, the HSA said there was a welcome reduction in total work-related fatalities in Ireland across the sectors, with the lowest number of fatalities on record since the authority was established in 1989.

However, “families, colleagues and communities have been left devastated because of 27 lives lost in work-related incidents in 2022”.

More people died in agriculture during the period from 2011 to 2020 compared with any other economic sector.