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Farming has often been romanticised, even now, with children playing in haystacks and riding on farm carts as “part of the fun”. But what about the dangers?


Young people in farming families have always helped out, but the public, even in the countryside, can miss that other children, are also at risk.


Of all fatal accidents on farms, vehicles are consistently the leading cause.


Child victims are very often in the presence of family, who were involved in the accident and had tried to protect them. Judging by the public news reports, this may even be worse post-covid.


In August 2021, a three-year-old boy in Carmarthenshire died after being hit by his father’s trailer in the farmyard where he was playing, shortly after his father had seen him in another part of the yard.


A jury inquest returned a conclusion of accidental death, as the father had looked around carefully and had not driven negligently.


Yet the little boy with his bike had moved into the trailer’s blind spot in the moments before it reversed.


n By Helen Armstrong


Latest on workers’ safety news


ALERT! CHILDREN ON FARMS


Don’t let play turn to tragedy


Beside the appalling tragedy to families, the legal processes can take a long time.


In September 2021, a nine-year-old boy died when the family’s pick-up truck, towing a water bowser, slid away on a sloping field. The decision was made to jump rather than risk falling into a quarry down the slope. The boy was hit by the bowser, causing abdominal and chest injuries, and was declared dead at the scene.


The family had made this short trip “many times before” and the ground was dry, the inquest was told.


It was reported that “an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive found the braking mechanism on the trailer was defective”, with the result that the bowser’s “towing capacity” was reduced to 750kg.


The coroner’s court recorded a verdict of accidental death, and did not issue a prevention of future deaths order.


This is a case like so many, where a familiar scenario went suddenly wrong. Farming has always been a family matter, where each member depends on the others. As stated by the HSE, agriculture “is the only high-risk industry that has to deal with the constant presence of children”, even though most do not now work.


32 uniteLANDWORKER Autumn 2024


Other present dangers to children include falling from vehicles, driving vehicles, falls from height, drowning or suffocating, agricultural poisons, falling objects – one case-history shows a young child killed by a gate simply propped against a wall – fire and, sadly, contact with animals – not only unruly or aggressive animals.


The HSE reports, “In most years, farming work will lead to the death of at least one child at the hands of their own parent or a close family member. Most children under five who are killed in farm accidents are with an adult at the time.”


But considering reports only takes us one step further. The HSE’s free publication ‘Preventing accidents to children on farms’ moves quickly on to how to consider, assess and manage the risks to children around the farm environs.


HSE strongly recommends doing risk assessments for what may seem to be quite ordinary tasks, such as allowing children to help collecting eggs.


There are also unexpected circumstances which may seem obvious in hindsight, and may be clearer if considered with a fresh eye.


Alamy


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