Health & Safety Executive (HSE) launches campaign to reduce farm vehicle deaths and injuries 

Vehicles play a vital role in farm work but incidents involving vehicles are the number one cause of deaths and serious injuries on British farms.

Incidents involving moving vehicles have been responsible for 30 per cent of all fatalities on farms over the past five years, that’s 48 lives lost in incidents that have destroyed farming families and hundreds more are hurt in incidents involving moving vehicles on farms every year.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), Britain’s workplace safety regulator, is calling on everyone in the farming community to do what they can to reduce the number of injuries involving vehicles and save lives.

HSE says there are three pieces in the vehicle safety jigsaw: operating a safe farm, maintaining a safe vehicle and being a safe driver.

Together, these pieces will help to keep everyone on farms safer. If one piece is missing, the risks increase.

Sue Thompson, HSE’s Head of Agriculture Policy, said: “We want to make 2023 a safer year on our farms by working together to prevent injuries and deaths.

“Agriculture consistently has the highest number of fatal and serious injuries of all industry sectors in Great Britain. Over the past five years, the average fatal incident rate is twenty-one times higher in agriculture than the average across all other industries. That is a shocking statistic.

“It’s time for us to make a change together to make our farms safer, and that’s why we’re asking farmers in England, Scotland and Wales to consider three areas of their daily farming activities and take the right actions to prevent another farming tragedy.”

At Crownford we can help keep your business safe from HSE fines, contact us today on 0871 22 616 22 to see how we can help you!