Farm deaths and injuries dropping
It has been a ‘‘tough weekend’’ for farming after the news that a mother and her son had died on a north Otago farm, Federated Farmers president Katie Milne says.
But despite the latest tragedy of Nadine Tomlinson and her 3-year-old son Angus in a tractor accident, deaths and injuries of people working on farms have been trending downwards as the sector takes the issue of safety more seriously.
Last year, 10 people died while working on farms, compared to an average of 21 for the four years beforehand. Until last weekend, nine people had died. Deaths are always referred to the coroner to assess whether they are workrelated or other types of fatalities.
Federated Farmers Katie Milne said the ‘‘she’ll be right’’ attitude of farmers had changed in recent years, after initial concerns about new rules had been allayed.
‘‘They were worried about being pinged for everything, that their paperwork might not be up to date – they were afraid of the unknown. It went both ways; there was definitely a perception that farmers don’t care, or they put themselves needlessly at risk.’’
Worksafe agriculture spokesman Al Mccone said there had been a ‘‘bit of an uproar’’ when the legislation was recently changed.
‘‘But if there’s a need for legislation and regulation to be
Of the 105 deaths in the past six years, all but 16 were in vehicles.
revamped, it’s usually because people are being injured and something needs to be done about it. If the industry isn’t going to do something, the Government will step in.’’
Mccone said four or five years ago inspectors would arrive unannounced on a farm, ‘‘but by the time they got to the fourth neighbouring property, the gates would be locked’’.
‘‘But now we give farmers prior warning and we now have them asking for safety assessments. In fact, there have been fewer prosecutions than fatalities in recent years.’’
Mccone and Milne are unsure whether the big improvement last year was a blip because of bad weather, and farmers did not use vehicles as much.
Of the 105 deaths in the past six years, all but 16 were in vehicles, with accidents on tractors and quad bikes the leading cause.
‘‘Despite the bad weather, you still have to be on the tractor and feed out, there’s still a lot of work that has to go on, and when you’ve got raincoat and leggings, diminished sight that makes it harder, so I would have thought it’s more likely for things to go wrong,’’ Milne said.
‘‘But then again that’s the point of health and safety, you should be more aware that conditions have changed for the day and you should be more aware.’’
There has also been a downturn in the ‘‘week off work’’ category of injuries.
This is worse in the dairy industry, where there have been high rates – up to 27 per 1000 – of workers who are crushed or kicked by an animal.