Farm accidents, both fatal and non-fatal have a rippling impact on communities in rural Australia. The interconnectedness between rural farmers and their communities means that a serious injury to a farmer can have a serious impact not only emotionally but in many other ways to communities throughout Australia. A farming accident can cause a farm to be closed down which can lead to a reduction in their product available for that community. There has been strategies and schemes put into place since 1960 to help to reduce farm accidents, fencing for safety as well as guarding of machinery and equipment and in particular tractor accidents are examples of this as these are the leading cause of fatality and serious injury in Australian farms.
According to a survey taken by 335 farm enterprises in Western Australia there was a significant gap between knowledge and practice in relation to farm safety and regulations. Many farmers believed that “safety is money” so therefore opted to not comply with safety standards. The same survey demonstrated that many farmers over-estimated less life-threatening causes of injury and underestimated the risks that can cause death. Between 1960 to 1990 the work death rate for agriculture only decreased overall by 28% compared to a much more considerable decrease in other disciplines such as construction (55%) and mining (65%). This meant the government needed to step in. This led to the introduction of various schemes including training courses, advertisement and systematic delivery of farm safety information. One of these schemes introduced was by WorkCover NSW which involved a rebate to farmers who had sufficient guarding to both generic and power take off machinery. This was preceded by a change in Clause 136 (d) of the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation 2001 which required employers to control the risk of entanglement through guarding. The result of this was an increase of 21.8% of enterprises making changes to their guarding. In a separate survey on the reason they made a change to farm or health safety of 303 farmers, 74 farmers reported that OHS requirements or legislation was their main reason for change. It can also be noted that the running of this scheme had some impact on other areas of farm safety. The incidence of farm fatalities has since declined by 44% over the past 20 years from an average of 146 deaths per year to 82 deaths per year. Future interventions targeting these priority areas are required to continue to decrease the incidence of farm related accidents causing injury or death. The effectiveness of the introduction of the rebate for guarding equipment along with the change in regulations was a positive public health response by WorkCover NSW. Another example of an effective response that has resulted in the reduction in loss of life is the introduction of a rebate for installation of roll over protective structures (ROPS) onto tractors.
A rebate of $150 for each pre-1981 tractor fitted with a ROPS meeting the Australian standard resulted in 12,129 ROPS installed in Victoria. A study on the structure of the rebate scheme found that this rebate scheme resulted in the reduction of unprotected tractors in Victoria by 70% from an estimated 17,420 to 5,290. There is a lot of research and evidence to suggest that improving farm safety resulting in positive public health benefits can be effectively done through the careful use of rebates. A study on the human cost of agriculture showed males, and those over 60 years of age are still however over-represented in fatalities and serious injury from tractor accidents. This can be attributed to the aging population of farmers, and the fact that some of these older farmers refuse to stray from their ways and comply with these recommendations, even despite the incentive of a rebate. The importance of the introduction of ROPS is that the leading agent of farm injuries across all age groups is tractors. From 2001-2004 tractors accounted for 19% of all farm fatalities, followed by all-terrain vehicles. However in a survey taken by farmers, they rated tractors accidents and all-terrain vehicles as 20th and 27th respectively in their ranking of fatal risks on their properties. This proves that education is required for farmers to understand these risks and the introduction of safety initiatives and programs is an essential process to this. Governments have traditionally found it difficult to have success in forming working partnerships to continue to run these schemes but with the ROPS scheme continuing the estimated deaths from tractors has been reduced to only 2 deaths per year. Hopefully this will continue to fall. This improved management leading to increased compliance in OHS systems and practices on their farms has led to a small number of increases in training session attendance, the number of tractor ROPS and the use of safety equipment and devices. Over a 3 year period, there was a 14% reduction in serious work related injuries. While fewer rollovers have been occurring on Australian farms, due to this retrofitting of ROPS the number of tractor run overs has risen and will likely continue to do so as the farming population continues to age and farmers become less agile on their feet. This is potentially a new platform a public health organisation can work on to put strategies in place, to potentially reduce tractor run overs as well.
For children, drowning is acknowledged as the number one cause of injury-related death for under 5 year olds. Therefore, this issue also has a significant impact on rural communities. From 2001- 2010 drowning accounted for 40.6% of all child farm deaths. According to coronial reports, the most common reason for these drownings would involve scenarios of a toddle wandering unnoticed to family dams or other water bodies. Due to approximately 60% of farms having children living on them, and 92% of farms having children visiting at least once a year. This presented an issue, that there is often no adequate barriers between farm houses and bodies of water. This issue was then identified as a key national priority by Farmsafe Australia and more recently the Remote Water Safety Plan. In conjunction with the 2008 NSW Population Health Survey, farm owners were asked two additional questions “Around your home, do you have a fenced yard?”, if yes, respondents were then asked “would the house yard fence prevent, or make it difficult for a young child under five years to wander away from the home unsupervised?”. Of the 1117 people sampled who answered these two questions there was alarming results with the figures only estimating approximately 53.1% of farms or rural properties being safe and secured. A 2003 review of safety interventions recognised that safe play areas are the single most effective way of reducing farm deaths in Australia. These findings showed the need to further promote, install or upgrade secure fenced yards or safe play areas. Despite no further data being available the NSW Department of Health believes through their work to increase awareness of this issue has lead to a great increase in the installation of safe play areas and a great reduction in farm related drownings in children. In addition to this, installing fencing not only minimises the water risk but other potential hazards on farms such as stock, moving vehicles and other hazardous areas. After the initial work in NSW it became a priority recommendation of promotional networking and campaigns in Victoria, closely followed by all other states ultimately leading to a positive health outcome and a reduction in child deaths due to drowning on farms across Australia. In 2006 this safety rule was added by the Australian Safety and Compensation Council. There is still advertisement surrounding this issue to continue to keep farms as safe as possible. The Australian Water Safety Council along with Farmsafe Australia have continued to provide practical resource material as well as introduced incentives for security. Another inclusion has been working with universities and TAFE health in a plan to continue to educate and prevent child drownings.
Overall, farm accidents can be greatly reduced by public health interventions in various different ways whether that be the introduction of rebates, change in legislation or increase in awareness. All changes have increased the effectiveness and contributed to a decrease in farm accidents and deaths across rural and remote Australia which is a positive outcome for rural and remote communities not only socially but economically as well.
References
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Pollock K S, Frajor L J, Griffith G R 2014. Improved Management and the Driving Forces for Practice Change. Occupational Health and Safety on Australian Farms, 11, 47-55
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