Inquiry hears how steel gates landed on Tommy after heifer burst through pen
A FARMER was trampled to death by his cattle after one of the heifers broke free as it was about to be taken for slaughter, a fatal accident inquiry heard yesterday.
Tommy MacFarlane, 69, was unable to get out of the way of the “wild beast”, which jumped over 5ft-high hurdle gates being used as a makeshift pen.
The 95st heifer caught its hooves between the bars and brought two heavy metal gates crashing down on to Tommy’s chest. He fell backwards and hit his head on the ground.
As the cow escaped into the farmyard, seven others followed, running over Tommy as he lay on the ground.
The farmer was taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary after the accident on June 20, 2016. He died on August 8.
The FAI heard he had suffered rib fractures and a serious cut on his head.
Pneumonia, a stroke, lung disease and pre-existing heart problems could also have contributed to his death.
The formal cause of death was put as “complications of head and chest trauma following a farming accident”.
Giving evidence to the inquiry at Livingston Sheriff Court, eyewitness Andrea Taylor, 28, described the tragedy as a “one-off ” accident.
Andrea, whose family run an arable farm close to Tommy’s Cuthill Farm, near West Calder, West Lothian, saidid Tommy had phoned on the morning of the accident to ask her to help him load the cattle on to a truck heading for the slaughterhouse, something they had done together many times before.
She said she and Tommy had linked metal hurdles together with baling twine to form a pen for the animals.
Andrea told the FAI that Tommy was standing just outside the makeshift pen while she and the lorry driver herded the cattle on to the ramp leading into the truck.
She said one of the cattle “just wasn’t going on the lorry”.
Andrea added: “We knew she was a bit wild. It was a young cow. She could have been about 24 months.”
The witness said once the cow jumped over the gate “the other cattle decided they were going over it as well”.
Andrea added: “They all ran right over him. It was just one of those one-off things. It was just where he was standing. You could say it was the wrong place at the wrong time.”
She said that since the tragedy, the practice of leaning the pen gates against straw bales had been changed and the cattle hurdles were now tied to a tractor for support. Also, no one was allowed to stand close to the temporary fencing. Sher i f f Douglas Dougl a s Kinloch will publish
his findings later.