09:28 am, Friday 23 September, 2011

Following another recent quad-bike death on a rural property in NSW, the Health Workplace Safety Authority has announced a strategy aimed at reducing quad bike accidents and injuries.

The popular four wheeler has been responsible for more than 141 deaths on Australian farms since 2000.

Tony Williams, from Workcover NSW, says the new approach starts with the purchase.

“Certainly, we are concentrating on point of sale, so right up front we want farmers to make the right decision, to buy the right machine,” he said.

“So we’ve got posters, we’ve got brochures, we’ve got pre-purchase check lists that are out there, for not only the farmer, but for the dealer to help make a good decision in purchasing.”

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08:21 pm, Monday 18 July, 2011

Almost half the work-related fatalities in Victoria in the last financial year occurred on rural properties.

WorkSafe Victoria spokesman Michael Birt said that in 2007-08, farm deaths made up 12 per cent of workplace deaths, but this year the figure had risen to 47 per cent.

Nine out of 19 workplace deaths were on farms. Of these, seven were transport related, one occurred when a farmer was trampled by an animal. Another man died when a tarpaulin he was using to cover grain was caught in the wind, throwing him 30 metres to his death.

The oldest to die from a farm-work injury was a 94-year-old, killed while riding a quad bike. The youngest was a girl aged 18.

He said the figure of four years ago was ”about right” given that farm workers made up about 3 per cent of the employed population, but their risks were heightened due to their work with heavy machinery and animals.

The new figures showed an over-representation of farmers in the work-related deaths toll.

Mr Birt said WorkSafe was worried about quad-bike injuries and deaths, and was encouraging riders to to wear helmets and install crush prevention devices.

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08:40 am, Tuesday 19 October, 2010

Safety issues over plant and equipment remain a major concern for the agricultural industry, WorkSafe Victoria reveals.

WorkSafe inspectors have issued over 200 safety improvement notices to farm businesses from July to September as part of a year-long statewide farm safety campaign.

Now in its third month, the campaign focuses on the most common causes of farm injuries and fatalities.

According to WorkSafe’s Executive Director (Health and Safety) Ian Forsyth, over half of the safety notices issued were in connection with plant and equipment safety.

“One of our biggest concerns is the lack of guarding on power take-off (PTO) shafts which can turn at thousands of revolutions a minute,” said Mr Forsyth.

“A PTO guard is basically a life-saving device which protects you from getting caught up in the rotating parts which connect a auger or a slasher.

“If [you're] not using a PTO guard, you’re putting yourself and others at risk of being pulled into the rotating shaft by hair or clothing.

“Most farmers would have a good understanding of what a fast-rotating shaft looks like. You don’t need a lot of imagination to understand what happens when something goes wrong,” he said.

Mr Forsyth is expecting farmers to become busier in the coming months as the state is expecting a bumper crop.

“Things may have been a bit quieter for farmers over winter – now that the days are longer and farmers are gearing up for harvesting, the pressure is really on.

“Now is the time to get safety right. If you’ve been farming for decades, it’s time to start thinking the job through rather than just relying on your skills and experience.”

Aside from inadequate PTO guard, the safety inspections had uncovered a number of safety issues involving plant and equipment, including quad bikes (helmets), silos, traffic management systems, and rollover protection on tractors.

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06:33 pm, Friday 30 July, 2010

WorkSafe will be going to western Victoria next week to conduct field days for agricultural workers.

The safety watchdog will grace field days Sheepvention (2-3 August) and the Mallee Machinery field days (4-5 August) to inform the farming community of workplace safety in a neutral setting.

“We set up stands at major field days to help industry with some of the issues they face. Taking the opportunity and making a five or ten minute investment in the future,” WorkSafe’s Ross Pilkington said.

WorkSafe records about 500 work-related farm injuries yearly while while six of the 14 work-related deaths in 2010 have been on farms. Tractors were the most common contributing factor in deaths in farmers, followed by quad bikes.

“While WorkSafe’s statewide farm safety enforcement campaign is underway, farmers, farm workers and their families all have an important day-to-day role to play on the ground,” Mr Pilkington said.

He stressed that farms are a place of business and there are risks that must be addressed.

“Getting information, thinking about what can go wrong and how to prevent it and having a dinner-table conversation about what’s at stake will save lives, maintain quality of life for individuals & families and keep people working in regional communities.”

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01:27 pm, Tuesday 13 July, 2010

WorkSafe is letting the farming sector know that the safety watchdog is undertaking a year-long crackdown on workplace safety.

Seven fatalities have been recorded in farms across the state in 2010.

According to executive director Cath Bowtell, WorkSafe inspectors will check on Victorian farms starting this month.

Ms Bowtell said they will focus on the usual causes of fatalities and injuries.

“Making sure that you’ve got a roll-over bar on your maintaining their equipment, that they’re using their equipment properly,” she said.

“That’s the sort of work that our inspectors are going to go out and talk to farmers about.”

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08:54 am, Monday 31 May, 2010

The Cairns Industrial Magistrate Court has fined a company $60,000 when a quad bike accident caused the death of one employee.

The company, which owns a cattle station in Queensland’s far north, pleaded guilty in the Cairns Industrial Magistrates Court on 6 April 2010 to failing to ensure workplace safety.

The Court was told the worker was driving a quad bike when he crashed through the station’s barbed wire fence on 3 October 2008.

The man, who sustained serious head injuries, did not survive the incident.

The Workplace Health and Safety Queensland’s investigation found the failure of the company to ensure that its quad bike operators wore the proper helmets.

In imposing the fine, Industrial Magistrate Joe Pinder considered the fact that the company gave its cooperation throughout the investigation, entered an early guilty plea, and had no prior workplace health and safety prosecutions.

Aside from the fine, the magistrate imposed $5,639.63 investigation costs and $65.40 court costs.

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03:56 pm, Monday 24 May, 2010

The Perth Magistrates Court has fined a labour hire firm $30,000 following the death of an employee in a farm accident over a year ago.

The Perth company pleaded guilty to failing to provide a safe workplace as a labour hire provider and causing the death of a worker.

The accident took place at a grain growing farm near Miling in November 2008, where the worker was working alone operating an all-terrain vehicle (ATV). He apparently crashed into a wire gate, and was found the next day by a truck driver.

The man, who was not wearing a helmet, sustained grave head injuries. He died in hospital two days after the incident.

WorkSafe WA Commissioner Nina Lyhne said it is another reminder that labour hire firms had a responsibility to manage risks in the workplace.

“Labour hire companies have an obligation to ensure the workplaces in which they place workers are safe and healthy, something that clearly did not happen in this case,” Ms Lyhne said.

“The court heard that the workers on the farm involved were riding the ATV without wearing helmets as a matter of course, and that the wire gate was difficult to see.

“There had even been a previous incident in which someone had driven into a wire gate. The gate supports had been painted to make them more visible after the previous incident, but they had faded over time.

“The labour hire company that supplied the worker had not visited the farm at any time during the six months the man had been working there to check for hazards, identify risks and consider control measures.

“As a result, the company had no idea that the worker had not been provided with a helmet or that there had been a previous incident involving an unseen gate.

“The fact that the injured worker was not found until the next day should also serve as a reminder that workplaces must have procedures in place for remaining in contact with employees who are working alone, especially in more remote locations.

“Labour hire companies should be aware of the responsibilities they have in ensuring that host workplaces are safe for the labour they send to them.”

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08:26 pm, Wednesday 12 May, 2010

WorkSafe has stated that farmers in Victoria over 60 years old are nearly twice as likely to be killed from work-related injuries as younger farmers.

In April, a 78-year-old man became the fifth farming casualty in Victoria for the year. His quad bike overturned on a steep hill at Maude, north-west of Geelong.

Seven farmers over 60 years old have died on the job since 2009. Among the fatalities, three were in their 70s while two were in their 80s.

Tractors were the most common contributing factor in deaths in older farmers, followed by quad bikes.

WorkSafe is reminding older farmers to acknowledge their limits and consider safety first before taking on a job.

Acting Executive Director for Health and Safety Stan Krpan is prompting farmers not to let everything they have worked for be destroyed just because they haven’t thought about safety.

“At the start of the year, WorkSafe asked Victorian farmers and their families to make a concerted effort to be safer in 2010. Now we’re asking all farmers, particularly older farmers, to renew this effort,” he said.

“We know that Victoria’s farming community is getting older. The average age of a farmer at the last census was 52, and a number of factors mean farmers are staying on the land for longer than before.

“It’s clearly time for Victorian farmers to review who is doing what on the farm and how safe it is. What we want people to do is ask themselves ‘do I have the right equipment, can I still do the job safely, and have I thought about what could go wrong?’.

“We’ve said it before – this is an issue that affects families, friends, and entire communities. Families and loved ones need to be talking to their farmer relatives, particularly if they are older, about changing their ways,” he said.

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05:32 pm, Tuesday 16 March, 2010

A windmill installation gone wrong has left two people dead and two others injured at around 11.45am today in western Victoria.

Early reports indicate the workers were installing a windmill on a farm near Rainbow north-west of Horsham, when it struck overhead power lines.

Two of the workers were electrocuted while two suffered serious burns.

A team of WorkSafe inspectors is on its way to the site investigate the incident.

WorkSafe Acting Director for Health and Safety Stan Krpan said the incident is a tragic reminder that workers need to be aware of their task at hand.

“Today’s incident takes the number of work-related deaths this month to four – with three in the past week, and 11 for the year. The latest fatality was last Thursday when a man died from a carbon dioxide leak in a Birregurra hotel’s cellar,” Mr Krpan said.

Today marks the first time since 2002 to claim the lives of two workers in the same incident.

On November 2002, a woman and her grandson died in an accident involving a quad-bike.

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