Number of deaths in workplace rises 15%

THE number of people who died in workplace incidents increased by 15% last year, with farming again proving to be the most dangerous profession.

Of 55 deaths recorded by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) last year, 22 took place on farms.

The figure for the number of deaths in agriculture actually fell by three compared with 2010, but overall, the number of workplace deaths increased 15%, with the HSA stressing that each fatality was a tragedy for the families of those involved.

The HSA said new safety campaigns will be launched this year, including the Taking Care of Business programme, while print and broadcast advertisements are already focusing on the dangers in farming.

A new advertisement featuring a farmer who lost an arm after it was caught in a tractor drive shaft has been criticised as being too graphic. However, the farmer who features in the advertisement told RTÉ’s News at One the campaign is aimed at saving lives.

Norman Bradley from Co Carlow said he was one of the lucky ones despite losing an arm doing what he said was “a routine task” more than a decade ago.

“It’s an horrific thing to happen to anybody but worse things have happened to people,” he said.

“It takes at least a year to get over that feeling of helplessness and to start motivating yourself.”

He now uses a prosthesis which was “quite awkward” but that allows him to do most tasks on his farm and tured out to be “the best decision I ever made”.

HSA chief executive Martin O’Halloran said there is still concern over the high rate of deaths in farming, despite the slight fall in fatalities last year.

“We know what the causes are, we see them year in, year out,” he said. “There are really about five or six primary causes.”

In addition to the “worrying” high rate of farm deaths, he said 30 of the 55 workplace deaths last year had taken place in counties Cork, Limerick and Tipperary, possibly down to the large number of farmers working there.

The HSA also said it is worried about the growth in deaths in the transport and storage sector, up from three in 2010 to eight last year. Two of those deaths were attributed to the plane crash at Cork Airport last year.

Mr O’Halloran said: “This is the second year in a row that the total number of workplace fatalities has increased. The fact is that behind these statistics there are human tragedies, lives lost and families ruined. Everyone has the right to go to work without danger to their safety or health.”