With so many mobile and computer apps available to farmers these days, we help you narrow down the best of the bunch with a look at a few targeted specifically at farm safety.

BeSMART.ie

BeSMART.ie is a free, online safety tool that allows small businesses to carry out risk assessments and create their own safety statements.

This version now meets the needs of a range of agribusinesses, including farm advisers, equestrian centres, horticulturalists and slurry contractors.

All employers – including small businesses and the self-employed – are legally obliged to have a written health and safety document, known as a safety statement.

This tool was developed by the Health and Safety Authority to help small businesses develop their own safety statement and to contribute to a culture of safety and health in their workplaces.

With over 30,000 registered users, BeSMART.ie is growing constantly and is now available for the agribusiness sector this year.

A risk assessment is required to be carried out by all farmers. Farmers can register and create a personalised farm risk assessment account. The idea of making a farm risk assessment is to reduce the chances of an accident occurring.

The website is easily navigated, and the farmer can update the details anytime, depending on new machines or changes in work practice on the farm.

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA)

The HSA has a detailed website, highlighting the risks in all areas of work, the agriculture and forestry section being particularly relevant to the farming community.

The website gives advice on how to farm safely on nearly all tasks in farming. (www.hsa.ie/eng/Your_Industry/Agriculture_Forestry/).

In addition to the website, the HSA is joining the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Strong educational videos and quality advice are available through all the streams. The website has details of the responsibility of both the employee and employer in relation to the Health and Safety Act.

Safe driving apps

A number of insurance companies have free apps that are using telematic technology, through the GPS system on the phone.

The purpose of the apps is to encourage safe driving and hence reduce the insurance premium. The apps record data on speed, time to make journeys – even if the phone has been in use while driving, for example texting and phone calls made on the journey.

The apps will score the driver and indicate if there are problems and offer advice on how to improve.

Some apps will have more detail than others. The Motormate app displays a map to highlight where areas of poor driving occurred, showing details on speeding, heavy braking and heavy acceleration.

The apps, it should be remembered, are a guide to performance and will not replace good driving technique and alertness behind the wheel.

Emergency accident apps

There now seems to be an app to cope with just about any situation. Social media and other streams are playing an ever-increasing role in letting people know if they are safe.

The attacks in France this year left many people uncertain of the safety of family and friends. Facebook launched its Safety Check tool in 2014, and a number of people used it to let people know they were OK.

In Chile over 4m people used it when the earthquake hit.

Nearly all farmers have this app on their phone and it could be an option in some situations.

Red Panic Button is a specialised app with user-centered early warning and vulnerability alert system (EWVAS), Red Panic Button allows one-to-many mode of communication. By simply pushing the red panic button, the app will send your GPS coordinates and a link to Google Maps, by SMS or email, to a previously specified contact list.

You can also enable the app to post to you Facebook or Twitter. This app utilises all communication streams available to communicate with as many emergency contacts as possible.

Safe Family Farms on the web

Since the launch of the Safe Family Farms programme last year, the Irish Farmers Journal and ESB Networks have developed unique content centred on the safety of all the family.

Every week a specific area is dealt with, offering advice from Arthur Byrne, public safety manager with ESB Networks, and one of the editorial team at the Irish Farmers Journal.

All of this information is at people’s fingertips, there is no need to travel to meetings or attend training days to find it.

Safety is an ongoing process and technology is just one tool to help to reduce the number of accidents on our farms.

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