Farmers across Yorkshire and the Humber are being encouraged to make their New Year's resolution a promise to come home safe from the field.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is launching the next phase in its 'Make the Promise' campaign with the stark message that people are still dying in needless farm accidents.
Across Great Britain, 38 workers lost their lives in farming-relate
d incidents from January to November 2009 (see notes to editors).
Recently finalised figures for 2008/09 show that more than 580 workers were seriously injured in farming accidents, 48 of them across Yorkshire and the Humber.
More than 1,200 farmers in the region have already signed up to the campaign. More are now being encouraged to do the same.
Judith Donovan, HSE board member and its agriculture champion, said:
"For those farmers we know have made the promise to come home safe, and the many more who may have made the pledge privately, the challenge for them now is to keep it, particularly when they're battling the weather or working to tight timescales. Losing concentration or taking seemingly harmless shortcuts is when horrific accidents can happen."
"To those farmers yet to make the promise, we encourage them to do it not only for themselves, but for their family and their livelihoods.
"Over the last 10 years, 455 lives have been lost on British farms - that's hundreds of families and farms devastated. Let's make 2010 the year that everyone comes home safe."
Supporting the campaign, NFU Regional Director, Richard Ellison, emphasised how important it is for farmers to take their safety seriously. He commented:
"We hear all too often of people seriously hurt or killed as a result of farm accidents and the loss is felt all the more keenly when it could have been avoided.
"I would urge everyone involved in farming to make a commitment to 'Come Home Safe'. Not every accident is avoidable, but in many cases prevention is simply about using commonsense and not taking short-cuts. That's a pledge everyone can make."
HSE regional director for Yorkshire and the Humber, David Snowball, added: "Inspectors who investigate deaths or serious injuries across the region, particularly in the traditional rural communities of North Yorkshire, see first hand the terrible grief that families face when someone is killed.
"But it is also disheartening to see the patterns common to many of these accidents and the lack of straightforward precautions that could have prevented them. We offer farmers training, support and guidance on how to keep themselves and their workers safe, and we'd much rather be doing that than dealing with the aftermath of accidents."
Although only about 1.5 per cent of the working population works in agriculture, the industry accounts for one in five work-related deaths every year.
As part of the campaign, farmers can request 'Promise Knots' to place around their homes and farms as a simple, but ever-present reminder of the commitment they have made to come home safe.
For more information on the campaign visit www.hse.gov.uk/makethepromise
