BLITZ ON FARM VEHICLES IN EAST KENT

HSE press release E158:03 - 14 August 2003

As the harvest gets underway the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is joining Kent Police to target agricultural vehicles on and off the road next week.

HSE inspectors will be making unannounced visits to farms to inspect mobile equipment including tractors, trailers and combine harvesters, which have been identified as the single biggest cause of fatal accidents in the agricultural sector. They will also join the police at roadside checks.

HSE's inspector, Liz Smith, explained: "Being struck by a moving vehicle caused 84 deaths in ten years between 1992 and 2002 and contact with machinery caused a further 44 people to die in the same period.

"Kent is rightly regarded as the garden of England and HSE is determined that it should not get a reputation as a killing field, because farmers fail to check the equipment before it gets put through the demands of the harvest.

"Last year we found vehicles with faulty brakes and other significant faults where lives were being put at risk and we issued 22 enforcement notices."

The school holidays and the hot weather encourage children and other people to be outside and we will be checking to make sure that children under 13 are not being carried in or on agricultural machinery.

Liz Smith added: "Since 1958 it is illegal for children under 13 to be riding in or driving agricultural equipment even if they are confident that they are capable.

"Parents should also be aware that being struck by a moving vehicle was the main cause of death to children in farming incidents and accounted for 15 deaths in the past ten years. "

HSE launched a video for schools called Safe! Helping children to stay safe on the farm which highlights the specific risks that face children, including the problems of difficulty seeing children playing close to tractors pulling equipment, and noise levels which make warning shouts very difficult to hear by drivers in cabs.

Special arrangements have been made to supply copies of the video to all Local Authority education departments. Copies of 'Safe! - Helping children to stay safe on the farm' ISBN 0 7176 2196 0 price £20.00 + VAT are also available for purchase from HSE Books.

Notes to editors

1. HSE launched a school pack 'Safe! - Helping children to stay safe on the farm' on 20 May (E084:03). Forty-two children (under 16 years of age) were killed in the past ten years (1991/2-2000/1). Three of them were classed as employees and 39 as members of the public. Over half (57%) of the fatalities to members of the public are children. Being struck by a moving vehicle was the main cause of death to children accounting for 15 deaths (38% of the child fatalities). Other major causes include asphyxiation or drowning (nine deaths - 23%) and contact with moving machinery (four deaths - 10%). Of the 39 child deaths, those aged between one and five years were most at risk. Twenty children (51%) fell into this age group. Ten children were aged between six and ten years and the remaining nine children were aged between 11 and 15 years.

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