The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
The dangers of working on the land
Haste to finish job led to potentially lifethreatening accident with forager hitting live power cables
A Fife contractor has revealed how a farm worker was electrocuted when a forager got caught in overhead power cables.
Speaking out in national Farm Safety Week, Peter Brown from Skeddoway Farm, Thornton, admitted that haste to get the job done on a difficult day led to the potentially life-threatening accident.
“We knew about the overhead power lines but obviously as things started deteriorating, it was a long day, heads were down, the problems were neverending and we were just at the stage of giving up.”
When his machine shut down, he made it safe and men on the ground cleared the forage then moved away, but when Peter fired the machine up again the same thing happened.
“Because there had been a list of problems, there was someone at the front of the machine a lot quicker than if it had been a normal situation,” he said.
“Before we knew it he had touched the front of the machine and it was at the point that the machine was in contact with the overhead wires.”
The worker on the ground got electrocuted and thrown backwards, slamming on to the ground a few yards away. Peter remained in the cab and called emergency services as he couldn’t jump clear of the danger area.
The farm worker regained consciousness by the time the emergency services arrived and it later transpired that he had touched the grass rather than the machine. Peter escaped from the vehicle safely after waiting for Scottish Power. He has now highlighted the importance of “taking a minute and calming down” when things are not going well.