Farm fatalities spike

FAULTY equipment and human error are common themes in farming incidents as fatalities spike across the Far North.

Farmers are being urged to focus more on creating a culture of safety in the workplace in an effort to save lives.

Workplace Health and Safety are investigating a number of incidents including at least four fatalities this year in the Far North.

“Compared to other years absolutely we seem to be having somewhat of a spike in farming-related incidents,” Cairns Forensic Crash Unit Sergeant Scott Ezard said.

A common thread among the tragedies, he said, was operator error and faulty equipment.

WHS statistics reveal that while the total number of reported workplace incidents has declined, the percentage that are farming has grown.

In 2016 just 3.8 per cent of all reported incidents were related to agriculture, last year it was 4.2 per cent. And this year to date it is 4.5 per cent.

Dr Richard Franklin, who chaired the Farmsafe Conference held earlier this month, said in the last 10 years he was concerned that the rate of fatal and serious incidents was not decreasing adequately.

“In the last five years I haven’t seen any improvement in the number of deaths,” he said. “I think it’s because we’ve been de-investing in farm safety.”

Dr Franklin said farmers needed to stop looking at safety as an “add on”.

“There are a lot of farmers doing it tough, that’s why you’ve got to think about safety as part of your risk management,” he said.

FNQ Growers president Joe Moro believes long hours and fatigue are playing a huge part as many farmers focus more on the bottom line than safety.

“The stress on a farmer itself is very high, there’s also mental health issues that we don’t talk about very much. The suicide rate is very high in our industry as well,” he said. “Farmers work a lot of long hours. I think farmers need to make sure the culture on their farm is one that is about safety first … productivity isn’t necessarily a good thing to have if safety is sacrificed.”