Bid launched to cut deaths on NI farms

Northern Ireland’s Health and Safety Executive has launched a campaign to tackle the appalling toll of death and injury on farms in the province.

In the past five years 42 people have been killed as a direct result of agricultural activities on Ulster’s farms.

Launching its Stay Farm Safe campaign, the Health and Safety Executive of Northern Ireland said it aimed to ratchet up its efforts by visiting 1,000 farms before April 2013.

The executive’s inspectors will point out dangers and hand out information packs on the dangers of everyday farming tasks.

A spokesman for the HSENI said they had used the acronym SAFE to highlight the major causes of death and injury – slurry, animals, falls and equipment.

Statistics show that 15% of the deaths since April 2007 were caused by asphyxiation or drowning in slurry stores.

Other accidents were caused by animals (27%); falls (27%) and equipment, including vehicles (27%).

The youngest to die was aged just eight and the oldest 84. But the majority – three-quarters – of those killed were aged 50 and older.

The scheme is supported by the Ulster Farmers’ Union and the NI Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The Farm Safety Partnership has also given the campaign its backing. And partnership chairman George Lucas said: “This initiative could not be more important. Within the past 10 days, I was deeply shocked to hear of yet another farm fatality.

“For the sake of this hardworking man and his family, and all the farming community, let’s pull together to ensure this does not happen again.”