Tragedy puts focus on risk in agriculture

A Loch Creran oyster farmer who drowned at work was one of five agricultural fatalities in Scotland in just 12 months.

The deaths have prompted a warning from a rural expert urging farmers to be vigilant.

Latest figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show that 33 people across Britain were killed in agriculture in 2017/18 – three more than the previous year.

Dunbeg businessman Hugo Vajk, 62, died in January.

He had been transferring oysters to a float when it drifted away. Mr Vajk was found face down in Loch Creran after wading out to retrieve equipment.

Mr Vajk, originally from France, founded The Caledonian Oyster Company Ltd with his wife Judith, a family business that has been running for more than 22 years.

William Barne, of insurance firm Lycetts’ Edinburgh office, said the increase in deaths across Britain in the past year cemented agriculture’s reputation as the riskiest industry to work in. The total number of people killed in Scotland over a five-year period in agriculture was 34.

Mr Barne said: ‘Agriculture’s high fatality rate significantly outstrips that of other industries. It is more than five times higher than the second mostrisky industry, construction, which really drives home just how hazardous an industry it is. Farmers face potentially fatal risks on a daily basis, from working with unpredictable animals to potentially dangerous machinery, so protecting personal and employee health should be top priority.

‘There have been great strides with regards to health and safety over the past decades, with the number of fatal injuries to workers in agriculture falling by around half since 1981 but we still have a huge way to go.’

Of the 33 deaths in the agricultural sector this year, four were members of the public, two of whom were children. Other agricultural deaths in Scotland included a 76-yearold self-employed farmer crushed by a bull when trying to move him.