Alarming Rise in Farm Accidents – Teagasc Survey
FARM accidents have risen by 13% in the last 5 years and by 31% in the last ten years. This is the stark finding of a national survey of farm accidents conducted by the Teagasc National Farm Survey (NFS). The survey found that in the five year period 2012-2017 that 11% of farms had an accident and in total 2,814 accidents occurred.
By farming system, the survey indicates that dairy farms had the highest accident rate of 18% over the survey period compared to tillage (12%) and sheep (11%) farms with the cattle systems of rearing (9%) and finishing (8%) reporting lower accident levels.
The survey indicates that 42% of acci- dents involved livestock with farm vehicles or machinery involved in a further 25%. Trips or falls resulted in 13% of farm accident followed by chainsaws (7 %) and farm buildings (6%).
The proportion of accidents involving farm vehicles or machinery has more than doubled from 2011 to 2017, while livestock related accidents increased by 26%. The survey, however, indicates a marked decline in the proportion of accidents due to trips and falls.
The survey showed that almost twothirds of farm accidents occurred in the farmyard (64%) and a further 15% in farm buildings. Almost one-fifth of accidents (19%) were in fields with only 2% on farm roadways or lanes.
The 2017 Teagasc NFS survey indicates that the vast majority of on-farm accidents (92%) involved a family member, with 80% occurring to the farmer. Twelve per cent involved a spouse or another family member. The remaining proportion of accidents involved workers (5%) and others (3%).
Almost all farm accident victims (97 %) required medical treatment with 73% attending hospital, a further 19% attended a doctor and 4% received first aid. Tragically 1% of such accidents reported resulted in a fatality.