Farmer and contractor Pat McGrath is recovering from serious head injuries he received from the tail board of his dump trailer in Turin, Co Westmeath, last month.

McGrath told the Irish Farmers Journal he had tried to put the tail board of his empty NC Engineering 300 series trailer in a flat position to collect timber lengths. The model’s popular function, known as the “magic tail board”, involves lifting the body and moving a control bar at the back of the trailer before lowering it into the new position.

The shock broke several of his teeth, two bones in his neck, and shattered his jaw: 'The doctor said it was like corn flakes.'

“I tried three times – it wasn’t going flat,” McGrath said, adding that the well-maintained trailer had never given trouble.

“When I went back in underneath to move the bar again, the tail board just slapped down and pinned me and hit my head,” he recalled.

The shock broke several of his teeth, two bones in his neck, and shattered his jaw: “The doctor said it was like corn flakes.” While pulling his head from under the tail board, he gashed the back of his ear and later needed eight stitches. A life-long timber worker, Pat always wears a helmet and he says it saved his life: “People would often laugh at me for wearing it. It’s only by the luck of God I had it on.”

He only found out after the accident that the tail board of an NC 300 series trailer caused the death of a 19-year-old man in Co Offaly in 2015. “I had a guillotine and I didn’t know it,” he said. The manufacturer issued a safety alert last year urging caution and recalling some models of the trailer for modifications.

Farmer and contractor Pat McGrath shows his helmet after it was hit by the tail board of his dump trailer.

Pat McGrath shows his helmet after it was hit by the tail board of his dump trailer.

Pat, who bought his trailer secondhand eight years ago, said NC and the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) had not done enough.

“In my opinion, NC should have tracked down every serial number and asked the owners if they had sold on the trailers,” he said. “Why didn’t the HSA send a text to everyone who did a Safe Pass after the inquest of the young man?”

The HSA said it had relayed the safety alert after the fatal accident, but did not have access to contact details for users such as Safe Pass participants to contact them individually.

NC Engineering had not replied to queries from the Irish Farmers Journal at the time of going to press.

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