To reduce agricultural incidents & improve outcomes

Devon Air Ambulance have always had strong ties to the farming community of Devon. With Devon a largely agricultural county, and with us attending a lot of agricultural incidents year on year, we are keen to engage with the agricultural community of Devon to better understand the daily risks they face and to find out what we can learn from each other in a bid to make a safer environment for all.

In February this year we attended the Agricultural Farming and Machinery show at Westpoint as an opportunity for us to speak with the farming community of Devon, and to derive from their personal knowledge and experience how we might be able to learn from each other in a bid to reduce agricultural incidents and improve outcomes.

Thanks to 27 agricultural workers who responded to our survey at the show, we obtained some really useful insight, not only into what farmers see as their biggest risk factors, but also machines and animals, machinery turning over and entrapment in machinery.

Whilst there are many preventative measures farmers can take in a bid to reduce incidents, there are also steps they can take to help in the event of an incident, from ensuring our crew can easily and safely land by having a clearly identifiable safe landing site, to, where possible, offering a lift to our crew when the landing site is remote from the incident.

When arriving on scene, in addition to considering the care required for the patient, our crew also face several other issues, including having to navigate machinery and livestock, which may likely have been the cause of the incident, safely accessing and egressing fields, and minimising the impact on farming operations.

Furthermore, there are also several aviation difficulties our crew commonly encounter. These include locational accuracy,

Supporting the safety of agricultural workers: survey results

Risks facing agricultural workers:

Machinery incidents

Animal stampede

Chemicals

Risks under foot

Isolation (mental health)

Lone working

Trapped limbs

Trips and falls

Cables

Long hours and workload

Language barriers

Advice from farmers for our crews:

• Become familiar with how to switch off machinery; be aware equipment could come live, rollback, etc.

• Be aware of power cables, especially following an incident or weather events

• Be conscious of livestock

• Become familiar with farm health and safety protocols

Tips from farmers to farmers:

• Ensure good signage

• Let other workers know where you are

• Ensure shared emergency language is known among staff

• Have a means of contact to hand what they think they can do to make it easier for our crews on scene. From ensuring there is good signage on the farm and machinery, to ensuring they have a means of contact to hand, as well as suggestions on what our crew can do to ensure they are confident on agricultural land, are aware of the common dangers on a farm, and are familiar with farm health and safety protocols.

From machinery and animals to long hours and lone working, the daily risks faced by agricultural workers are vast and whilst our crew attend to a broad array of agricultural incidents, there are some they regularly attend, including falls, crushing from making it difficult for our crew to find patients from the air, and selecting a safe landing site, which could well be remote from the incident. These difficulties can delay our crew landing, extend the time spent on scene, and make onward transport more challenging.

Following from our findings we intend to embark on a larger project to continue to work with the agricultural community, to further develop education and information for the farming community on injury prevention, and education on farming safety protocol and minimising the impact on farming operations for our crew.  email comms@daat.org

Have your say...

Our

What’s not to like?!

Join

securely online daat.org/play-our-lottery

Sam

Sam Slater Lottery Supporter Assistant

Sam has worked with DAA since 2020 and within our Lottery team since January 2022. Sam is responsible for all lottery admin, building relationships with our members and most importantly running our weekly draw every Friday!

You can call Sam any time on 01392 466666 (option 3) or contact her by email at lottery@daat.org

Our canvassers are a vital part of the team and their work helps the lottery to grow and raise the vital funds that keep our crew responding. Meet Marcia, Lisa, Daniel, and Rae.

You can see Marcia and Lisa out and about in various foyers at most venues across Devon, so please do go over and introduce yourself if you see them. Our two newest members are Daniel who is continuing to trial our door-to-door canvassing, and Rae who is reaching out to some of our local small businesses.

All our canvassers will have ID badges and will be wearing DAA uniform, so if you have any queries please let our Lottery Team know...

Daniel

DAAT Lottery Office, 5 Sandpiper Court, Harrington Lane, Exeter EX4 4NS

DAAT Lottery Office, 5 Sandpiper Court, Harrington Lane, Exeter EX4 8NS

Tel: 01392 466666 Option 3 or email lottery@daat.org

The above postal address is all you need when contacting us by post.

StaffI/DNumber

YourDetails

Mr/Mrs/Miss/Other

FirstName

Surname

DateofBirth

Address

Postcode

Telephone

Email

HP1116

HP0523

PLEASECOMPLETEINFULL-BLOCKCAPITALLETTERS

I Confirm I am 16 yrs of age or over

Cheque Payment - Amount Received £..................

For entries @ £1 per week per entry

Lottery promoted by Devon Air Ambulance Trust.

Devon Air Ambulance Trust is licensed by the Gambling Commission, Number 000-0005032-N-308657-001.

Responsible person: D Hawes www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk

Please gamble responsibly. For advice visit www.gambleaware.co.uk

DAAT is a member of the Lotteries Council and is committed to promoting a responsible approach to gambling.

Contact us at : T: E: lottery@daat.org www.daat.org

01392 466666 Option 3

Administration Office: DAAT Lottery Office, 5 S andpi p er Court, H ar r i ngt o n L an e, Ex eter EX4 8 NS

You will shortly receive a letter from us showing your lucky number/s. There is no need to claim as all prizes are paid automatically.

All proceeds go to support the Devon Air Ambulance Trust Charity No 1077998. Your subscription is greatly appreciated as our Lottery raised over £2m which helps to keep both helicopters flying. We receive no funding from either the Government or the National Lottery. We rely on your support, to help us to continue our essential lifesaving service.

Results are published every Friday afternoon on our website at: www.daat.org.

Thank you for your support - you are truly making a difference.