For another year running, agriculture maintains its number one spot on the grisly leaderboard of workplace deaths, with incidents involving farm livestock as the main cause of these fatal accidents, followed closely by vehicle-related fatalities. A new campaign by the HSE focuses on safety around livestock and vehicles.
Livestock Safety: Mitigating Fatalities
Livestock were responsible for eight deaths in the UK last year and hundreds of injuries. These included those employed in agriculture and members of the public who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Livestock Handling
The HSE would like to reiterate that the best way to prevent these incidents is by keeping people and cattle separate. Of course, this is not always possible – we have to move our stock, medicate them, tag them, calve them etc.
Handling systems must be used when there is any close 1:1 work with a beast, and these systems should be checked and maintained regularly. Any race should have an escape, and all workers trained so they are aware of emergency procedures. No one can know their cattle inside out, to the extent that they will be able to avoid any injuries. Just like people, cattle have off days and even the most placid animal can act out of character.
Special care should be taken when working with cows with calves at foot. The same applies to bulls. Where possible, work should be carried out in pairs or teams rather than by lone individuals. If this is not possible, then have a safe system of work which involves someone knowing where you are and checking in.
Public Safety
Where fields are intersected by public rights of way, it is best if they are not used for grazing at all. If this is unavoidable, seriously consider fencing the footpath off. Cows with calves or bulls should not be in a field with a footpath at all.
Signage must be erected, warning the public of the type of livestock and the risk. More people than ever own dogs and their behaviour has been on a downward spiral since lockdown; incidents with dogs and livestock have seen an upsurge.
When moving animals always plan ahead. The route should be checked beforehand, and handlers should have visibility ahead of them rather than just being at the back of the herd, with lookouts posted to check for walkers and cyclists who may be at risk.
Actions such as these would have prevented the death of a grandmother out walking with her grandchildren in 2023. The farming business involved was found liable and fined heavily in Court.
Ensuring Vehicle Safety
HSE figures show that 30% of all deaths on British farms over the last five years were caused by moving vehicles. 50% of these were preventable if four simple steps had been followed. These are:
1. Applying the handbrake and regularly checking the brakes
2. Checking mirrors are fitted and are clean
3. Ensuring doors are closed and remain closed when moving
4. Wearing a seatbelt
Yard Safety
Yards should be workplaces, with a minimum of pedestrians using marked walkways and keeping clear of moving machines. Workers must be aware of who else is in the yard and where they might be when undertaking any vehicle movements. Modern machines have us so far removed from the ground, with such poor visibility compared to the tractors of old, that it is so much easier to miss someone who is just out of sight.
Operator Responsibility
Vehicles must be operated by trained and competent operators and never used by someone who is under the age of 16 or who is not properly licensed. It is illegal for anyone under 13 to ride in an agricultural vehicle as a passenger. Children may distract the driver or alter controls when the driver is not looking.
Doors are often removed to save time, particularly on teleporters. However, this makes it more possible to fall out of the moving vehicle or for an overturning incident to become fatal.
Vehicle maintenance should be undertaken regularly, with any lifting equipment used also checked. Every year, farmers are killed or seriously injured when tractors fall during routine maintenance or wheel changes.
Encouraging a Culture of Safety
On farm surveys, we regularly see all of the above and the reasoning is always the same – “it saves time.” The thing is, it really doesn’t. Not if you are the one who has the accident, fatal or otherwise. The statistics are always just numbers until they apply to someone we know, for then they become a tragedy.
For every one person who goes to work and doesn’t come home safely, whole families are torn apart, businesses broken and lives shattered. Farming is undeniably dangerous – but it doesn’t have to be this way.
There is a plethora of free guidance on the HSE website to aid and assist those involved in agriculture. Securus Risk Advisors are available to attend farms and undertake wholistic surveys to improve safety in a more practical sense.
