Make our farms safer, plea

Editorial Department • Published 26 Jan 2012 13:00 0 Comments

A major initiative to combat the numbers of deaths on farms is to unveiled during February and March.

The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland this week said it was in response to the numbers of fatalities last year. Each month last year a farmer was killed while working on the farm. Already another death has occurred this month.

The four main causes of these fatalities are unguarded machinery, handling livestock, falls when carrying out work at heights and incidents involving slurry tanks. This unprecedented rise in deaths calls for action.

The HSENI during February and March will be focusing its attention on farm safety through a Help Initiative. This will entail HSENI staff visiting farms and speaking directly with farmers and their families about how they can ensure their safety and help prevent injury and death. This complements the current TV advertising campaign which is running on UTV.

The realisation that everyone involved in the industry must do everything possible to prevent any further deaths has seen the HSENI working closely with the Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) to develop a new Farm Safety Partnership.

Ken Logan, Acting Deputy Chief Executive, speaking directly to farmers said, "With the full support of the DARD and UFU, HSENI staff will be visiting your farm in order to discuss the dangers that you and your families face on a daily basis. Given that most Northern Ireland farms are worked by one or two people, this is a very personal message to you. Safety must be your number one priority as it is likely to be you or another family member who gets injured or killed. This Help Initiative will provide you with an opportunity to ask questions and seek advice from my colleagues. Please co-operate and help make our farms safer."

Tweet

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 26 Jan 12

Post a comment

Your Comment:

Registered users log in here

Username or email

Password

You must be logged in to post. If you have not registered with us, please do so now.

Registration only takes a few minutes. Registered users do not have to complete word verification once logged in and can also take part in competitions and other registered user only features of the site.

Word Verification:
Enter the text as shown.

Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.