Farmers have been urged to ‘make positive changes and be safe on the farm’ as a new campaign highlights risks of everyday farm tasks which can lead to accidents.
NFU Mutual has joined forces with the Farm Safety Foundation to urge farmers to assess the risk involved in of everyday farming tasks which continue to cause high levels of injuries and deaths.
The leading rural insurer is launching its new campaign at the LAMMA farm machinery event on January 17 to encourage farmers to challenge ingrained behaviour to reduce the risk of accidents to them, family members and employees.
“By creating awareness of the importance of farm safety when carrying out regular tasks, such as bringing down bales from a stack, working near PTO shafts and using ATVs, we want to improve the safety of farms across the UK,” said Ian Jewitt, Managing Director of NFU Mutual Risk Management Services.
“Unfortunately, today’s farmers are under huge pressure to get work done, often alone, and familiarity does breed contempt when we do the same tasks day in day out - and eventually luck runs out and the result is horrific injuries and fatalities.
“Working with our partners at the Farm Safety Foundation we have created four scenarios to highlight the issues and show how farmers how to avoid them. We will be sharing these safety topics via Facebook and Twitter and asking farmers to spread the message by posting a pledge on Twitter.”
'The facts are shocking'
The campaign focuses on highlighting the risks of the following tasks: Working at height - ladder usage; working with farm machinery particularly around PTO shafts; working with livestock; and using All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs).
Stephanie Berkeley, who heads the Farm Safety Foundations said: “The facts are shocking: 27 farm workers lost their lives in the workplace in 2016/17 and many more life changing injuries.
“While UK farmers are among the best in the world, farming continues to have the poorest safety record of any occupation – the industry accounts for 1.5% of all workers, but 15-20% of all worker fatalities according to the latest Health and Safety Executive figures.
“We are happy to support NFU Mutual’s campaign and spread the message on the need to make everyday tasks safe. We want the farming community to take note, share and put into practice the topics we outline to help change behaviours towards farm safety.”
