07:30 am, Friday 29 October, 2010

More Victorian farm workers have been hurt or killed by tractors in the past year than by any other equipment used in the farming sector, WorkSafe reveals.

WorkSafe spokeswoman Charlotte Bull said since the start of 2009, there have been 11 reported tractor-related deaths on Victorian farms.

“So what this means is that more people have been killed or injured on Victorian farms by tractors than any other piece of farm machinery. Most of these accidents involve tractors rolling or tipping over, or people being run over by tractors,” she said.

The latest casualty involves a 58-year old woman, who died on Wednesday after she was struck by a tractor on a Towong farm, east of Wodonga.

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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 tractor with an attachment like an 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 forklifts, chemical storage, fall hazards, electrical equipment, manual handling, quad bikes (helmets), silos, traffic management systems, and rollover protection on tractors.

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07:57 am, Monday 20 September, 2010

The Education Department has offered its apologies to a Morawa agricultural college student who was seriously hurt by a farm machinery in 2007.

The woman was 17 when the lower part of her body got entangled with a defective tractor in May 2007.

The department pleaded guilty failing to provide a hazard-free environment. It was fined $50,000 by the Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

Geoff Moyle, The Education Department’s director of Agriculture education, had apologised to the student and her family. He said he regrets that it took more than three years to formally extend the department’s apologies.

“Up until this point in time there’s been a legal process that’s been going on and the Department felt that it was important that we respected the privacy of the family as the young lady continued to recover and due to that fact we’ve not been able to offer an apology until today,” Mr Moyle said.

The accident was entirely avoidable, according to Worksafe commissioner Nina Lyhne.

“This young woman’s life has really been changed forever and had there been safe systems of work in place, had there been proper procedures, that would not have happened,” she said.

The case marks the first time a government safety agency has prosecuted another department of the Government.

“Quite clearly it sends a message that all employers have a responsibility to ensure the safety and health of their workers and other people who might be in the workplace and that applies to government agencies as well as it does to the private sector,” Ms Lyhne said.

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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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