450KG BALES OF HAY FELL ON ME
DARRYL Kiepe lives every day with pain from an entirely avoidable workplace accident.
When two 450kg hay bales fell on him from an awkwardly stacked pile on a Darling Downs property last year, doctors told him he was lucky to survive. Now, mostly recovered from his injuries and having settled a Work Cover claim against his employer, Mr Kiepe, 43, is advocating for safer workplaces across Queensland.
A FARM worker who survived almost one tonne of hay bales falling on him is using his experience to advocate for safer workplaces.
Darryl Kiepe, 43, was testing moisture levels in hay bales awkwardly stacked about 4m high on uneven ground when a 450kg bale fell, knocking him down in February last year.
It triggered a mini avalanche, with a second bale falling onto his chest, causing serious back, face and leg injuries.
He was airlifted from the property between Felton and Clifton to Toowoomba Hospital where doctors told him he was lucky to survive.
Mr Kiepe last month settled a WorkCover claim against his employer for a confidential figure and while he’s still living with the pain of his injuries, which doctors say will never disappear entirely, he’s advocating for greater awareness for workplace safety.
“There’s too many little businesses, or even medium size ones, that don’t have any protocols in place,” Mr Kiepe said.
“Too many people are complacent.”
Now a truck driver, Mr Kiepe said the WorkCover settlement would help support his Nobby-based family.
The workplace accident has stripped him of most of his physical ability which means he can no longer go kayaking with his son Jak, 9, for any length of time, but the stoic fighter is determined to live through the pain.
“It’s really affected me personally,” he said.
“I’m only half the bloke I used to be; I used to be able to go kayaking on the Condamine River for two hours in one direction and I can’t even do it for 10 minutes now. But I’m not going to let it beat me.”
With the support of law firm Maurice Blackburn, Mr Kiepe shared his story in the hope of reducing the over-representation of Queenslanders in avoidable workplace incidents.
National Farm Safety Week figures reveal the farming and agriculture sector employs about three per cent of Queenslanders, but equate for the second highest number of fatal workplace incidents in the country.
Statistics reveal there were 14 deaths on farms in Queensland last year alone.
Mr Kiepe is calling for mandatory site inductions and safety briefings at all workplaces, especially on farms – something he said lacked at the Darling Downs farm on which he suffered his injuries.
“There was no inductions, no protocols, nothing in place with the bloke I was working for,” he said.