Farm accidents a cause for concern
Accidents in the work place have been given a novel twist with the latest news coming out of some of Britons hundreds of farms.
A new document published by the Health & Safety Executive’s Farmwise guide has revealed that over the last ten years an average of one employee is killed every week due to the work they have to do.
To avoid this particular pitfall many within the farm industry have been advised on how to stay safe within the work environment, especially considering that accidents on farms is quite prevalent.
400,000 people work within the farming sector which accounts for less than 1.5 per cent of the whole working population, but 15 per cent of workplace deaths happen on farms one of the largest numbers in all sectors.
Graeme Walker, the man in charge of farmer safety at the HSE, said: "The persistently high rates of fatal incidents and work-related ill health in the industry are of real concern to HSE, to the representative industry bodies and too many farmers.
"Solutions are often simple and cheap and the people best placed to make farms safer are farmers and their employees."
As such there are safety qualifications available for farmers which are specifically aimed at improving the industry’s poor safety record. Health And Safety Executive (HSE) has been at the forefront trying to improve their fortunes.
"The farming industry's health and safety record is poor, and these VQs are aimed at anyone working in the industry, from farm workers to supervisors and managers," explained HSE Inspector Alastair Mitchell. "These qualifications should help improve the education, skills and competences of the workforce and contribute towards making farms safer places to work."
High
The simple fact remains that the HSE are quite concerned that the number’s involved in accidents have failed to drop over the past decade. Despite all of the moves made to alter these statistics the numbers seem to remain at the same dangerously high level.
Judith Donovan, a non-executive HSE board member and its agriculture champion, said: "It is simply unacceptable that, almost every week, someone dies in a needless farm accident. These accidents don't just destroy lives; they destroy whole families, and often their farms too.
The advice given by the organisation advises on how to possibly reduce any future accidents. They advise that children must be kept away from moving vehicles, extra supervision, and extra security around dangerous machines.
HSE regional director David Ashton agrees with the advice: "Agriculture has one of the highest fatal accident rates of any industry in the UK and is probably the only industry where there can be a constant presence of children."
He added: "Farms are homes as well as workplaces and visitors to the countryside, many of them children, are often present on farms whilst work activities are being carried out. We don't want children to be risk-averse but the vast majority of these accidents were preventable and there are simple common-sense measures that can be put in place."
Updated on 07/06/2009