Near misses and minor injuries are the best predictors of a more serious farm accident occurring in the future, Dr Claire Jack from the Agriculture and Bioscience Institute in Northern Ireland has said.

This comes as Health and Safety Executive (HSE) data of farm fatalities in Northern Ireland found that those who have had more serious accidents on farms, as opposed to those who have had near misses, believe they got away with the risk they took and are more likely to take a risk again.

“Attention should be given to the perception of and management of risks in order to change behaviours and culture,” Dr Jack said.

The study also found that farm fatalities in people over the age of 50 were more prevalent from Thursday to Saturday.

With this, fatalities are five times more likely in males than females and fatalities in children increase in occurrence over the weekend.

Causes of accidents

Jack said that the main causes of accidents have stayed the same over the last 50 years.

“There has been a decreasing trend due to vehicles and equipment but they are still the main cause of farm fatalities. Farm fatalities due to animals are increasing, however,” she said.

Dairy farms, she said, on average are experiencing the most accidents.

“The more intense the level of farming activities the greater the likelihood of accidents occurring,” she added.

Animal handling fatalities and injuries, Dr Jack said, display an upward trend. She highlighted that there potentially needs to be funding put in place to make animal handling safer on farms.

Training

Training to allow for better assessment of risk in this area is also key, she said.

“While fatalities have decreased [in Northern Ireland] over time, each fatality impacts on farm families and their farm business.

“There is a continual need to pursue safety improvements at farm level,” Dr Jack said.