Farming tragedy

A recent tragic case has once again highlighted the importance of maintaining good health and safety practices on farms.

This week, Neil Carpenter, a farmer from North Devon, was jailed for 4.5 years after being convicted of manslaughter and breaching the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (“the Act”) after a voluntary farm worker, Lauren Scott, was killed on his farm in March 2017. Lauren, who was working on the farm in an unpaid capacity, suffered fatal injuries after her hair got pulled into an unprotected drive shaft which was being used to power a 19^th century milling machine on Carpenter’s farm. She was just 20 years old.

Lauren’s death is yet another tragedy to befall the agriculture sector, which already has the highest rate of fatal injuries of all the main industry sectors; around 18 times higher than the All Industry Rate. But why is farming so dangerous and where did Carpenter go wrong?

The perils of farming

Looking at the Health and Safety Executive’s summary of fatalities from 1/4/17 to 31/8/18, there are clearly a number of risk factors in farming:

1. Heavy and potentially complicated machinery – machinery accidents are caused by a number of factors such as using a machine that is unsuitable for the task, failing to follow a safe system of work and using unsafe methods for repair and maintenance;
2. Vehicles – the most common cause of serious/fatal injury in agriculture involves a moving or overturning vehicle;
3. Livestock – handling cattle poses a risk of an injury from crushing and kicking etc.;
4. Exposure to height – falls from ladders, rooftops, silos etc. constitutes the second biggest cause of fatal accidents;
5. Exposure to power – farm machinery and vehicles are getting bigger and taller and therefore increasing the risk of result of contact with Overhead Power Lines;
6. Falling objects – e.g. bales, trees;
7. Weather – farming is a job for all seasons. Extreme weather conditions such as the heavy snow experienced by many parts of the country at the beginning of this year serve to aggravate the risk factors highlighted above;
8. Fatigue – long hours can impair judgment and the pressure to finish a job can often result in cutting corners;
9. Old age – as the old adage goes, farmers never retire. The average age of a farmer is 59 and therefore it is unsurprising that of the 33 reported fatalities in 2017-18, 22 of those were aged 60 and above.
10. Children – farming is a family affair and children raised on farms are exposed to all of the risks highlighted above to some degree; risks which are compounded by a child’s size, ignorance of danger and innate sense of adventure.

A stitch in time

So where did Carpenter go wrong?

Under the health and safety legislation, Carpenter owed Lauren a statutory duty of care under Section 3 of the Act which required him to ensure that he took all practicable steps to protect the health and safety of those persons not only in his employment but who might otherwise be affected by his undertaking from any risks.

Thus whilst Lauren may have been an unpaid volunteer, Carpenter owed the same duty of care to her as he would have done to a full time employee. The Act protects workers, contractors, volunteers, visitors and the general public alike.

In this case there was no question that Carpenter’s duty of care to Lauren had been breached. The power take off shaft (“PTO”) should have been sealed inside a protective cover but was not. About two thirds of it was covered by a piece of old cracked yellow plastic and the remaining third was completely unprotected which meant that the shaft, which was rotating at 540 rpm, was uncovered and liable to snare anyone who came close to it. The court heard evidence that it would have cost just £75 to replace the cover and make it safe. The judge said Carpenter had ’not processed’ the risk posed by the antiquated and uncovered PTO shaft and had taken a “cavalier” approach to health and safety. In other words, he had failed to carry out any form of risk assessment in relation to the machinery.

Conclusion

There is increasing awareness of the importance of farm safety with campaigns such as those promoted by the Farm Safety Foundation and the NFU but as with any campaign, it will take months, if not years, for the impact to be seen in terms of fewer deaths on farms.

The importance of maintaining good health and safety practices on farms cannot be overstated: every year dozens of people die on farms and far more are injured.  As this case shows, the consequences of being responsible for such an accident are potentially severe.

For further information about health and safety and farming please contact a member of our team.