With agriculture the top occupation for workplace deaths and accidents, we consider the possible implications for brain injured farm workers of the Health and Safety Executive’s decision to halt routine inspections in Britain’s deadliest industry.
Farming is statistically the most dangerous profession in the UK, outstripping all the main industrial sectors including construction, heavy engineering, ship building and shot blasting.
Latest annual figures from the Government’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) show 27 people died in farming related accidents in England, Wales and Scotland – an accident rate per thousand workers 21 times higher than the national average for all industries.
Farming also accounted for almost 9,000 non-fatal workplace injuries, many of them due to falls, heavy machinery and kicks from livestock which frequently cause concussion and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), leaving farm workers in need of compensation to rebuild lives that have changed forever.
And women can often be in greater danger than men. A report by Farmers Weekly into a survey it carried out in late 2023 among 1,500 women working in farming, found that a failure to provide them with equipment more suited to their size and physical strength left them at greater risk of an accident.
Farming safety experts are therefore alarmed that the HSE has announced it is halting routine farm safety inspections. This decision is part of a streamlining process under the HSE’s long term “Protecting People and Places Strategy”, which is due to run until 2032.
Yet there are many examples of people who have sustained TBI on the farm. One woman who knows all about that is Mandi McLeod, a former dairy farmer who has been concussed three times – in a quad bike accident, a riding accident and after being kicked on the head by a horse while walking across a paddock to feed calves.
The injuries have left her with feelings of fatigue, severe headaches, anxiety and depression.
More recently, Amazon Prime viewers of Clarkson’s Farm witnessed Jeremy Clarkson’s farm manager, Kaleb Cooper, hitting his head on a cage in a freak accident caused by the safety harness he was wearing.
An even more high profile and severe agricultural related accident occurred in April 1998 when the celebrated comic actor, Rik Mayall, whose television work included ‘The Young Ones’ and ‘Blackadder’, was critically injured while riding a quad bike on his land and spent five days in a coma. Although he recovered and his creative genius continued to delight audiences, he had to take medication to prevent epilepsy for the rest of his life and passed away following acute heart failure 16 years later at the age of 56.
Raising serious issues
So it is unsurprising that the decision to stop routine farm safety inspections has been roundly criticised by both the National Farmers’ Union and its Farm Safety Partnership (FSP), a collaboration of organisations which promote safe work systems throughout agriculture. They say it raises serious questions about the HSE’s prioritisation of safety in farming.
“While the HSE assures us that investigative inspections will continue in response to serious incidents, the lack of all regular inspections, training and events leaves a notable gap in proactive and preventative safety measures that could save lives,” said David Exwood, the NFU’s Deputy President who chairs the FSP, in response to the HSE’s plans.
“We need to work on changing the culture of farm safety. This decision by HSE completely goes against that goal. We are calling on Defra and the Department for Work and Pensions to recognise the critical safety implications of this decision and establish a clear plan to prioritise safety in farming.”
The safety issues now being raised in farming are among the new developments constantly being monitored by Coulthursts, who specialise in representing people affected by TBI whilst uniquely provide clients with the rehabilitation and support they need to start rebuilding their lives while they are still recovering.
Coulthursts MD Philip Coulthurst says: “We regularly research social trends which put people at risk of long term incapacity due to TBI and these reports from the farming industry are clearly a cause for concern.
“Many of the people injured in farm accidents suffer concussion, which clinically is classified as a ‘mild’ TBI but which can be extremely debilitating and life changing.
“Indeed, in the past decade or so, the developments in research and neuroscience show very clearly that some people have a poor outcome from a concussion or mild TBI, which can leave them with prolonged and permanent health problems.
“As a result, all concussions should be taken seriously, given the possible consequences, and I have long been of the firm view that the label ‘mild’ is a total misnomer. For those that do not recover, it is anything but mild.
“So the HSE’s decision to stop routine safety inspections on farms has got to be of concern, and we shall continue to keep abreast of this situation as it evolves. It is all part of our ongoing policy to ensure we remain fully equipped to represent our clients who rely on us for fair and just reparation and for access to the best rehabilitation, treatment and support if and when an accident resulting in TBI does occur.”
For further information and support email advice@coulthursts.co.uk
For our terms of use and disclaimer follow this link: https://coulthursts.co.uk/