People would do anything to turn back the clock when somebody had died on their farm or when somebody had sustained a life-changing injury, Dr Conor Deasy of Cork University Hospital has said.

Dr Deasy is one of the authors of a new study on farm accidents in Ireland, Trauma on Irish Farms in the Republic of Ireland, launched for this year’s Farm Safety Week, from 20 to 24 July.

Industrial site

“People need to understand that a farm is an industrial site. I know it’s people’s homes but it is nonetheless an industrial site and it needs to be treated like an industrial site. The same rigours around farm safety need to be applied to Irish farms as we apply in industry,” he said.

Dr Deasy said that farm accidents can have catastrophic effects on people’s lives and that many people who sustain these major life-changing events never get back to being able to manage that farm again.

“People don’t like not being able to continue to work as a farmer because they’ve endured a potentially preventable suite of injuries,” he said.

Each year, 4% of the 6,000 major trauma accidents in Ireland are on farms, the audit found. In 2018, 194 major trauma accidents were recorded on farms.

Dr Michael Sheehan, Dr Deasy and Louise Brent conducted this research and found:

  • Injuries on farms are increasing each year.
  • 6% of the accidents involved children.
  • 27% of accidents occurred in people aged 65 years and older.
  • Limbs were the most common body part injured (32%), followed by chest injuries (21%), spine injuries (16%) and head injuries (15%).
  • Almost one in five patients required surgery.
  • 18% required admission to intensive care.
  • The most common mechanism of injury was a blow from an animal (29%) followed by falls (27%).