Work Right - Agriculture

The Health and Safety Executive have launched a campaign called "Work Right - Agriculture" in a bid to reduce farm vehicle deaths and injuries

Vehicles play a key role in farm work but incidents involving vehicles are the number one cause of deaths and serious injuries on British farms. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Britain's workplace safety regulator, is calling on everyone in the farming community to do what they can to reduce the number of injuries involving vehicles and save lives. HSE is this week launching a farm vehicle safety campaign and has created a website which brings together lots of great advice on using vehicles safely on farms.

Vehicle incidents are the number one cause of deaths and serious injuries in British agriculture. They caused forty-eight fatalities in last five years and hundreds injured.

Sue Thompson, HSE’s Head of Agriculture Policy, said: “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.”

Operating a Safe Farm - Keep people and vehicles apart:
1. Segregate vehicles and people with clearly marked routes and walkways to keep them apart to avoid serious injuries.
2. Use barriers and posts in high traffic areas to protect people and save lives.
3. Use signage, good lighting and a high visibility clothing to help everyone be seen on the farm.

Maintaining a safe vehicle - Detect faults now, before it’s too late:
1. Regularly check and maintain brakes. Trailers must have brakes designed for the maximum loads and speeds at which they will operate.
2. Ensure a seatbelt is fitted and worn every time.
3. For vehicles which have doors fitted as standard, make sure the doors are attached securely and remain closed when the vehicle is moving.
4. For vehicles that have mirrors fitted as standard, double check they are fitted securely and are clean to ensure optimum visibility.

Being a safe driver - Pause, take a moment to be a safer driver:
1. Use the handbrake every time. To prevent serious injury if your vehicle moves due to the terrain or gradient, follow the simple safe stop routine before you get out or off a vehicle: handbrake on, gears in neutral, engine switched off and the key removed.
2. Ensure you’ve been trained properly; training is vital to help keep everyone safe.
3. Think visibility to protect everyone on the farm, whatever the vehicle - ensure mirrors and windows on the vehicle are clean and when manoeuvring, take a moment to consider where the blind spots are. Keep people away while you are moving, get people to stand where you can see them.