Farm safety could be improved on all farms with the introduction of hi-vis jackets, according to a farming family in Aberdeenshire.
Figures released by HSE in Farm Safety Week reveal the most common cause of fatality on farms involves vehicles overturning or people by being struck by a vehicle.
.Peter Robertson of Ednie Farms near Peterhead has introduced a hi-vis policy across his family’s extensive livestock, arable, renewables and forestry enterprise. The business employs two people full-time and others part-time when required as well as welcoming schoolchildren to the farm.
Mr Robertson took the decision last year after reading about the industry’s safety statistics.
“ I was shocked to see that 37% of accidents on Scotland’s farms were caused by people being hurt by vehicles or machinery. I know in this area of at least two incidents recently where family members have been seriously injured by vehicles,” he said.
“I decided that to reduce the risk of that happening on our farms we needed to take action, and we put in place a hi-vis policy, where anyone, no matter their age or purpose, who comes onto the farm must wear a hi-vis jacket or hi-vis boiler suit.
“This policy is widespread in nearly every other manual labour industry, such as the buildings and construction sector, so why should agriculture be any different?”
The team on the farm said it has made workers across the whole business much more aware of those working around them and made the farm a safer place to live and work.
“You can get hi-vis for so little these days,” Mr Robertson said.
“It really is a very simple, cost effective, but yet highly useful way of making our farms and working environment safer and I certainly think others should be considering implementing this policy on their farms.”
Martin Malone of the Farm Safety Partnership Scotland said 40% of all accidents in which farm workers have lost their lives in agriculture over the past decade were workplace machinery-transport related.
He added: “Whilst this year we have seen an improvement in the numbers of farmers losing their lives as a result of machinery and transport, the fact is that one death is one too many.”
nnicolson@thecourier.co.uk
