Record number of farmers respond to campaign to reduce deaths

Date:

20 February 2009

Release No:

E017:09

Paul Temple, NFU Vice President and Judith Donovan, HSE's Agriculture Champion, stand together to make the promise for farmers to come home safe, at the launch of the annual NFU conference in Birmingham. Download image (92KB).

In just six weeks more than 6,000 farmers have responded to the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) latest campaign to prevent deaths on British farms. Agriculture remains one of Britain's most dangerous industries: in 2007/08 another 39 workers died bringing the ten-year total death toll to 455. Alarmingly, year on year in that period, the number of deaths has remained consistently high.

'Make the promise. Come home safe', is already HSE's most successful agricultural safety campaign the past 10 years, raising awareness of the common dangers and using the promise to help farmers keep them in mind during their daily tasks.

The hard-hitting initiative was launched at the beginning of last month by the HSE targeting farmers and their families. The campaign highlights the key causes of work-related death in a newly published booklet called 'How lives are lost on British farms'. It contains brief summaries of some of the real stories of the people behind the statistics. Unfortunately the types of accident are all too common, but they are also preventable. HSE wants all farmers to understand how and why fatal accidents happen as the first step to doing something about them

David Eames, a farmer and contractor from Lincolnshire said: "Coming from a family of farmers, I know all too well the accidents that can happen when handling farm machinery and equipment. I believe the 'Make the Promise. Come Home Safe' campaign serves as a great reminder that all farmers, young and old alike, should be more vigilant and take extra care to avoid mistakes on farms. Hopefully farmers and their families will pay attention and we will be able to prevent more accidents and deaths."

Last month, direct mail packs were posted to almost 70,000 British farmers asking them to make a promise to come home safe. The packs included a 'Promise Knot', as a small, visual reminder of the pledge to come home safe.

Paul Temple, NFU Vice President, said: "Any death is a death too many, yet all too frequently someone dies in a farm accident. These accidents destroy lives, whole families and often farm businesses. This campaign is of massive importance to the farming industry. We hope everyone in rural areas and those involved in farming get to know about the campaign, talk about it and spread the message. As it says in the campaign slogan, we want everyone to 'Come Home Safe'."

Judith Donovan, HSE's Agriculture Champion, said: "This campaign has kicked off a debate and we've already had over 6,000 responses to our adverts and mailings. I think we've struck a chord with farmers - the promise is a personal promise only they can make and keep. I'm delighted to have sparked discussion on farming blogs, and with the full support of the NFU, the Farm Crisis Network and the union, UNITE, we are confident the message is being spread throughout the farming community. We want to reduce the number of deaths on farms and this is a great start."

The HSE campaign has been backed fully by the Scottish, English and Welsh NFU and UNITE, the union.

Notes to editors

Two-thirds (64 per cent) of all deaths in farming are self-employed farmers. Within this group, older farmers are the most at risk, accounting for over half (53 per cent) of the deaths to the self-employed.

Over the last ten years deaths on farms have been caused by the same activities. The three main causes of deaths to agriculture workers in the last ten years were: 

• Transport - 24 per cent
• Falls from height, especially roofs - 17 per cent
• Being struck by moving or falling objects - 15 per cent

Press enquiries

All enquiries from journalists should be directed to the HSE Press Office