Protect yourself and your livelihood

Farming

3 min read

Falls from a height are one of the leading causes of serious injury and death on farms across Northern Ireland, accounting for more than a quarter of all accidents, according to the HSENI. As members of the Farm Safety Partnership, sharing information to help try and prevent these accidents is important to our team.

A large number of these incidents arise from poorly planned maintenance or construction work on agricultural buildings.

The HSENI recently launched its fourth Farm Essential Message ‘Stay Off Roofs’ aimed at highlighting the very real dangers to farm workers of working at heights.

The messages aim to drill down into the key issues which are the main causes of major incidents and death on farms. The first Farm Safe Essentials message, ‘No Brakes, No Chance’, was launched during last year’s Farm Safety Week, while the second message, ‘Plan Safe Spaces’ focusing on bulls, was launched in September. The third message, ‘Give Slurry Space’, was launched in October.

The latest Farm Safe Essentials message encourages the farming community to consider the risks when working at height and on roofs.

If undertaking this work yourself is unavoidable, HSENI is proposing the following guidance:

• All work at height must be planned and fragile surfaces identified by a competent person.
• Anyone undertaking work at height must be adequately trained and competent to do the job.
• Any equipment used for working at height must be suitable for the job.
• Equipment must be adequately maintained with relevant safety checks completed by a competent person.
• Any person operating this equipment must be familiar with the equipment and trained to operate it.
• All leading edges must have suitable and sufficient protection to stop people falling from height both internally and externally.
• Mobile Elevated Working Platforms (MEWPS) (eg scissor lifts or cherry pickers) are the preferred method for working at height if a scaffold platform cannot be erected.

Meanwhile, the HSENI’s advisory engagement with agriculture contractors continues throughout January with telephone calls and virtual advisory appointments being carried out rather than site visits due to the ongoing situation. Agriculture contractors are being asked to put safety at the top of their new year’s resolution list.

At AbbeyAutoline, we understand that the constant demands of farming can sometimes overshadow the importance of evaluating your insurance as your farm evolves. Our dedicated farm team can work closely with you to select the level of cover best suited to your needs, freeing you up to concentrate on the business of farming.

Policies such as Farm Combined Insurance are designed to cover all farming activities, bringing together everything from home and contents to farm liability conveniently into one policy. Policies can cover farm buildings & contents, items of machinery and plant, farm buildings, silage, straw and feedstuffs, farming equipment as well as tools and dairy equipment.

As Northern Ireland’s biggest insurance broker, we search from a large panel of insurers so we can tailor a policy to suit your needs regardless of the size of your farm.

With branches across Northern Ireland AbbeyAutoline’s teams are never far away when you need them most.