FARM SAFETY MAKES SENSE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28701, 26 September 1958, Page 13 (Supplement)

FARM SAFETY MAKES SENSE

By

G. E. CASTLE,

Farm Safety Organiser, National Safety Association of N.Z.

Farming is today one of the most hazardous of all occupations. Sixty-three persons were killed in accidents on farms in New Zealand last year, the highest total ever recorded. In the last nine years 430 persons died in accidents on farms. In addition to this annual average of 48 deaths well over 3000 nonfatal accidents occur each year. The farm tractor is still the greatest single cause of loss of life of persons involved in farm accidents. Thirty-three persons' lost their lives in tractor accidents last year and already in 1958 the farm tractor has claimed 15 victims. Since the beginning of 1949 there have been 184 fatal tractor accidents in New Zealand. This tragic loss of life and tre-

mendous loss of working time is vitally important to the farming community, resulting in lowered output of farm goods and a lower income for both the farm concerned and for the whole of New Zealand.

There is no doubt that the vast majority of tractor fatalities are caused by some human failing. We cannot by law force people to do things even when they will benefit from them, but by education and training they can become safety conscious, whereby they will have a fuller understanding of their own safety and the safety of others.

Unfortunately, awareness alone does not prevent accidents. Persons must act: action might be more plentiful if we could only convince more farm people that something can be done to prevent accidents. Persons seldom see a

need for safety until the accident happens, and then it is too late. Accident prevention on farms is more difficult than in factories, though similar conditions exist in both industries. The farm owner, or his sons on a large number of farms, operate the equipment themselves, handling machinery that is as powerful as many other industrial machines and handling this machinery over rough ground. The person put in the paddock doing tractor work has more of an opportunity to take risks without being checked than the person working close by a foreman. If we are going to reduce accidents on farms, it is necessary for those working on farms to be instilled with a safety attitude, whereby they will develop safety habits and be able to reach a decision as to whether to do it the safe way or take unnecessary risks with the possible consequent loss of life.

In spite of the publicity given to fatal accidents involving children. 24 children were killed in

accidents on New Zealand farms last year, bringing the total since 1949 to 151. Ninety-eight of the dead children * were under the age of four years.

Where adults could or should be able to think for themselves this is not the case with these tiny tots who cannot recognise hidden dangers around the farm. Unfortunately the fact remains that a number of these deaths could have been avoided if reasonable precautions had been taken.

Farm safety education is a job for everyone, it is a job that calls for the highest degree of tenacity. If a concentrated effort by all rural organisations to work together in close co-operation is made, then we must surely reduce the toll of accidents throughout the farms of this country. If we adopt this attitude towards safety on farms, then we must not only lengthen life through accident prevention, but life on the farm will become much fuller, more meaningful, and economically better by reducing these accident tragedies.