Today marks the second day of Farm Safety Week 2018 and the organisers and producers are highlighting the danger of transport and machinery this Tuesday. Farmers come into contact with a host of machinery daily - combines, choppers and hay balers which bring their own attendant dangers.

Hands, hair and clothing can be caught by unguarded PTO shafts or other unguarded moving parts such as pulleys and belts. People can be injured by front-end loaders, falling from a moving tractor or being struck by its wheels, according to the IFA.

Prevention on the farm

Machinery accidents can be prevented by keeping the machine in good repair, fitting and ensuring all safety equipment are operating with the machine at all times and not taking risks when working with powerful machinery.

According to Caroline Farrell, IFA Farm Family chair: “Everybody in farming knows somebody who has been injured or killed in an accident. This Farm Safety Week we are calling on farmers not to rely on luck when working.

Agricultural machinery is dangerous and can rip off a limb or kill in seconds.

Teagasc safety specialist Dr John McNamara drew attention to the fact that 50% of farm deaths are related to farm vehicles and machinery.

“This is a huge safety risk factor in July due to high machinery movement with harvesting activities and the fact that children are on holidays.”

He appealed to farmers to drive slowly, particularly in farmyards. “A vehicle travelling at fast walking speed (8km/h) covers 2.2m/s putting any bystander at high-fatality risk if struck.”

The Teagasc specialist noted that 15% of farm vehicle and farm deaths in 2017 were due to ATVs. He said that having training to use a machine is crucial for safety, drivers need to be agile to shift their weight on slopes to stabilise the ATV and most importantly ATV speed needs to be contained.

Get involved

For more information on Farm Safety Week UK & Ireland visit www.ifa.ie/farm-safety or follow @IFAmedia on Twitter using the hashtag #FarmSafetyWeek.