It’s been a sad week in rural North Otago with the deaths of two relatively young men.
Neither death was the result of an accident but ACC tells us that a farmer dies as a result of an accident every 28 days.
Thirteen farmers died in accidents on New Zealand farms in 2009, which is the equivalent to one farmer dying every 28 days.
Farmers also experienced more than 18,600 injuries on farms last year, which means that a farmer or agricultural worker is injured approximately every 34 minutes in New Zealand.
The most common causes of injuries were poor handling of animals, quad bikes and farm machinery.
Animals, quads and machinery are all potentially dangerous.
We have safety manuals and rules but policy and procedures aren’t foolproof. Sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes it’s a result of misjudgement, carelessness, inexperience or stupidity.; sometimes it’s just bad luck. Sometimes there’s serious consequences and sometimes there’s not.
We’ve had a couple of accidents which could have resulted in serious injury or death this year but in both cases, luck was with the men who escaped with nothing more than a fright. – and a valuable lesson for all of us to be more careful.
Homepaddock 