Rise in farm deaths shows HSE is right to drive home message

THE past few weeks have not been good for Scottish agriculture. A 70-year-old farm worker was killed this month in the Glencarse area near Perth, when his tractor was towing a large seed drill.

Only days previously, a man had to be cut free by fire crews after his tractor overturned near Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire, and in early May, two Angus farm workers were injured when their telehandler plunged over a cliff at Lunan Bay, near Montrose.

Those accidents come in the wake of the publication of official figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which reveal that in 2009-10, 38 workers were fatally injured at work on UK farms - 13 more than in the previous year. The most recent tally not only confirms that agriculture is the most dangerous industry in the UK, but marks a return to average death rates of the previous years.

And advancing technology does not always reduce risk, as was dramatically illustrated this year when it was revealed that 62 per cent of Scottish farms inspected by the HSE were not using All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) safely. On average, two people die and over 1,000 are injured in ATV accidents each year.

The clear message from the HSE - endorsed by Scottish secretary Michael Moore - is that farmers are simply not taking the risks associated with ATVs seriously.

Transport-related incidents are the second biggest cause of fatalities in Scottish agriculture.

Over the years, the HSE has repeatedly hammered home the messages about farm safety with a range of campaigns - graphic and heart-wrenching at times.

The HSE has been criticised for being over-zealous, but it has held its course with imagination and commitment and reiterated that risk on the farm can be managed, if not eliminated, and that no industry should accept high levels of workplace deaths.

With national statistics showing that agriculture represents only 1.5 per cent of the workforce, but accounts for 20 per cent of work-related deaths, there is little need to justify a sustained effort to create a safer farming industry.

In agriculture, the fatalities and serious accidents often deeply affect family businesses - these are not incidents in far away places, but tragedies that can cause pain and hardship within close working relationships.

There have also been child deaths, with agriculture the only industry where children can be cheek-by-jowl with a working industrial complex.

Farming is an industry where working in isolation is normal, where seasonal stress can cause risks to be taken, and where the lack of basic training - and refresher courses - can all contribute to accidents.

NFU Scotland has stressed the need for effective training in the use of ATVs - just because a piece of machinery is an everyday work tool, it does not mean that its use should be approached cavalierly.

Many farmers and their workers have suffered life-changing injuries over the years, and the HSE has used this as a powerful tool in reminding the industry of the need for greater sensitivity to safety issues.

To date 2,100 farmers in Scotland have signed up to the HSE's "Make the promise: come home safe" campaign. This not an example of health and safety gone mad. No-one need look beyond the contributing narratives of Fiona Shannon, whose husband, Grant died as a result of a farm accident in the Borders. She and others in the "Make a promise campaign" have a powerful message: there are no second chances.z