We all know someone who has been affected by a farm accident. The trauma and grief are unimaginable, especially where there are children involved.

While improvements have been made on Irish farms in recent years, we are still not where we need to be.

For some, they don’t see the dangers and get caught unaware

One accident is too many. Farming is a dangerous business and the nature of small family farms is that family members, young and old, will be present on the farm at different times.

For some, they don’t see the dangers and get caught unaware. It’s our job to make sure that all farmers and their families are safety aware.

It’s a boring subject, ticking off lists and going through risk assessments, but it is worth it. It can be expensive where items have to be replaced or changed and this is especially hard on farms where incomes are extremely low. Replacing a shaft or replacing an arm seems like a simple choice, but many of us think we will never have to replace an arm and the shaft goes uncovered. Fatalities arising from livestock accidents are also too high and in many cases could be avoided.

What we often don’t hear about is the farm accidents that leave a farmer debilitated, unable to continue farming or with their life changed

‘It won’t happen to me’. That’s the one common sentence every farm accident survivor says: “I didnt think it would happen me.” What we often don’t hear about is the farm accidents that leave a farmer debilitated, unable to continue farming or with their life changed in some other way.

Within this is the mental battle that victims go through, something that is often not talked about but is very real. Use next week to make a change on your farm, even if it’s hanging that heavy gate that is at risk of falling on someone, do one thing on your farm for farm safety.

In this week’s farm safety focus, Manus Connolly takes a look at the latest health and safety statistics from the Health and Safety Authority. Gary Abbott and Peter Thomas Keaveney have some simple steps on keeping machinery safe and Shane Murphy goes through the correct loading procedure for livestock.