Injuries suffered as a result of working on farms are unfortunately very common indeed. Work-related fatalities and injuries have always been common in farming due to the inherently dangerous nature of the work. The annual number of fatalities and injuries in farming has, according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) never sustained a downwards trend and has in recent years has actually risen.
Due to nature of the industry, which uses high levels of casual and migrant labour, it has always been difficult to approximate how many people work in farming. The HSE approximates that up to half a million people work directly in the agricultural/land-based sector but that less than 1.5% of the UK workforce work on farms. However, that tiny percentage generates 15% to 20% of all workplace fatalities, placing it in an unenviable number one position amongst all industrial sectors for such deaths.
In the year 2010-11 there were 42 fatal injuries in the farming sector – that is 8 workers in every 100,000 employed on farms dying as a result of their work. In the ten years from 1999 to 2009 the death toll in farming had reached a staggering 436. Of that total the majority of victims (245) were self-employed farmers and their employees (140), but it also included 51 members of the public and 19 children. 22% of the victims were over 65 years of age reflecting the employment demographic for the industry.
Farm Injuries – the causes
The major causes of fatal injuries in farming have not changed much over the past few decades with the highest number resulting from falling from or suffering blunt or sharp trauma from impact with a farm vehicle. Other major causes include, in descending order of how common they are, falls from height, asphyxiation or drowning, livestock related, machinery related, being crushed under something overturning or collapsing and the least common cause, electrocution.
Farm Injuries – probably under-reported
When it comes to the prevalence of non-fatal injuries, the HSE acknowledge the paucity of their data and conclude that due to the effect of various cultural factors long established within the farming sector there is an extremely high level of under reporting of such injuries. The HSE suspect that probably only 25% of non-fatal injuries that are suffered by farm workers are ever reported to them and an even lower percentage (5%) of injuries suffered by farmers ever get reported.
It worth bearing the HSE’s opinion on the under reporting of non-fatal injuries in the farming sector in mind when we consider that even the number of non-fatal injuries that are actually reported means that farming still has one of the highest rates of any sector. Statistically compared; farming experienced 242 major injuries per 100,000 workers against the national average across all the other industries of 101 in every 100,000. Only the construction industry can rival farming when it comes to work related fatal and non-fatal injuries. Much health and safety improvement work still apparently needs to be done across our nation’s farms – or farming will be a continuing cause of far too many accident compensation claims.
Farm Injury Compensation Claim? We can help you
If you have sustained an injury whilst working on a farm and believe it was due to your employer’s failure to protect you, you could be entitled to claim for damages. Our experts can advise you on how to claim compensation, so:
Call 0800 1404544,
Or email our accident solicitors using the contact form today.
