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Incidents involving moving vehicles are responsible for 30 per cent of all lives lost on farms in the last five years
This March the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched a new campaign aimed at reducing the number of accidents and injuries involving farm vehicles.
Vehicles are vital to the work carried out on farms – but are the biggest cause of deaths and serious injuries on British farms.
HSE figures highlighting the problem show that incidents involving moving vehicles have been responsible for 48 fatalities, 30 per cent of all lives lost on farms over the past five years. Hundreds more are hurt in vehicle related incidents every year.
To increase awareness of the issue the
HSE has launched Work Right Agriculture, Your farm. Your future, a farm vehicle safety campaign and website which brings together lots of practical advice on using vehicles safely on farms.
Sue Thompson, HSE’s Head of Agriculture Policy, said, “We want to make 2023 a safer year on our farms by working together to prevent injuries and deaths.
The HSE says there are three pieces in the vehicle safety jigsaw ● operating a safe farm – keep people and vehicles apart
● maintaining a safe vehicle – detect faults now, before it’s too late
● being a safe driver – pause, take a moment to be a safer driver.
Together, these pieces will help to keep everyone on farms safer. If one piece is missing, the risks increase. Sue
8 uniteLANDWORKER Autumn 2023
“Agriculture consistently has the highest number of fatal and serious injuries of all industry sectors in Great Britain.
“Over the past five years, the average fatal incident rate is twenty-one times higher in agriculture than the average across all other industries. That is a shocking statistic.”
“It’s time for us to make a change together to make our farms safer, and that’s why we’re asking farmers in England, Scotland and Wales to consider three areas of their daily farming activities and take the right actions to prevent another farming tragedy.”
Thompson added, “We want to support the farming community to show that safety on the farm doesn’t need to be difficult or expensive. There are simple steps you can take today to help keep you and everyone on your farm safe.”
The HSE hopes the campaign will encourage farmworkers to start their daily routine following the safe farm, safe driver, safe vehicle advice to help plan the job and complete it safely.
Unite National Officer Bev Clarkson said, “Every worker should expect to get home safely from work and Unite supports any campaign that improves workplace safety.
“Vehicles play a vital part in many agricultural jobs and I would encourage Health and Safety reps and members working on farms to
make use of the resources on the Work Smart website.”
There is lots of free advice available on using vehicles in agriculture
safely on the HSE’s Work Smart Agriculture website.
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