A three-year-old child was among 27 people killed in agriculture-related activities in the last 12 months, as Britain’s workplace regulator calls for farmers to ‘think differently about safety’.
The call for a cultural shift away from poor behaviours comes as the rate of fatal injuries in the sector remains one of the highest of all major industries.
Provisional figures for 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023 show that of the 27 people killed – 21 were workers with the three-year-old child among six members of the public to lose their lives.
Being killed by an animal (cattle) is the major cause of death in 2022-23 (vehicle related incidents are the major cause when looking at the 5-year average).
Although, the number of fatal injuries to workers in the agricultural sector has fallen by around half since the early 1980s, the rate of fatalities, which is based on the number of people at work in the sector, has remained high with little change. The worker fatal injury rate is 21-times higher than the average five-year annual rate across all industries.