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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09:14 am, Saturday 6 March, 2010

A 42-year-old mother of three was killed in a tragic tractor accident on Wednesday.

Muraka Jenny Vearncombe was on a footpath in North Ward when a tractor with an attached slasher being operated on a vacant lot nearby apparently ran over a pipe. She was killed instantly when the pipe flew in her direction and hit her on the head.

The impact was so great the pipe was later seen 50 metres from Ms Vearncombe’s lifeless body.

The 48-year-old man who was operating the tractor was taken to a hospital in shock.

Counselling was offered to emergency services and people in the surrounding businesses who witnessed the incident.

Police Senior Sergeant Darren Randall said initial investigations indicate it was an accident.

”It’s a tragedy. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time. She just happened to be in the exact trajectory of the pipe,” he said.

According to Sen-Sgt Randall, the long grass in the vacant lot may have hidden the pipe. However, they are not discounting the possibility that the pipe may have detached from the equipment.

The incident has been referred to Workplace Health and Safety Queensland for investigation.

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