Tractors and quad bikes remain leading cause of on-farm fatalities

Nearly nine out of 10 on-farm deaths in the 2021 AgHealth report involved either tractors or quad bikes. Image: www.flaticon.com.

Farm vehicles continue to pose the greatest risk to those living and working on the land, with nearly nine out of 10 on-farm deaths last year involving either tractors or quad bikes.

Those concerning figures were released in February as part of the latest AgriFutures report on Non-intentional Farm Related Incidents in Australia, an annual snapshot of accidents causing death or serious injury on agricultural properties.

The research

Since 2004 AgHealth Australia has been leading research into deaths and injuries on-farm, providing comprehensive evidence on which to build prevention approaches to improve the safety and wellbeing of people in Australian agriculture.

The information collated is captured through monitoring of Australian print and online media, enabling the reporting of the recent prevalence of farm injury in a timely manner. The most recent report was released in late February, focusing on injury events which occurred from 1 January to 31 December 2021.

Deaths

A total of 46 on-farm deaths were reported during the 2021 research period. It is positive to note that this is a decrease from the 58 deaths reported in the corresponding periods for 2020 and 2019, and the 68 deaths in 2018, however every one of these deaths is a tragedy which affects the lives of family, friends and colleagues.

For the 2021 period, fatalities involving tractors (n=10) and quads (n=9) were reported most frequently. Farm vehicles and equipment by far accounted for the majority of reported deaths, causing 37 of the total 46 deaths, 40 (87%) of which involved males while six (13%) involved women.

Animals were involved in three deaths, as were farm structures including dams and powerlines, while one death each was accredited to hay bales, logs and other nonspecified causes.

The most concerning of the statistics, particularly for our industry’s general demographic, is the age of those who lost their lives in farm accidents. Nearly 58% of deaths were in those aged over 45, with the greatest number (12, and 26.1%) occurring in the 60-74 years age group.

Tragically, 2021 also saw 13% of fatalities occur in children under 15, while 15.2% involved teenagers or young adults aged 15-29.

The largest number of on-farm deaths reported occurred in Queensland (n=19), with 10 in NSW, six in Victoria, five in WA, four in SA and one each in the NT and Tasmania.

Injuries

An additional 128 non-fatal on-farm injury events were reported in Australian media during the 2021 reporting period.

Quad bikes (n=52) were the leading cause of injury, followed by tractors (n=14) and horses (n=9), with these three causes accounting for almost 60% of all incidents reported.

Children aged under 15 years were involved in 23 (18%) of the injury events and 86 of the 128 total incidents occurred in Queensland. NSW had the next highest rate at 23 incidents, followed by Victoria with 13, the NT with three, WA with two and Tasmania with one. No injury events were reported for SA.

Don’t be a statistic – please!

With the busy olive harvest period not far away, the report is a timely and important reminder of the need for vigilance around farm safety.

Stop and think when working with or around vehicles and machinery, follow all safety regulations and practices, and take your time: the grove and fruit will be there until the job is done - but if you get distracted or tired, you may not be.

Remember that farm safety is everyone’s responsibility: please make it yours, and make it home for dinner at the end of each working day.

20-year on-farm fatality statistics

Since 2001, 1,632 people have lost their life on a farm due to non-intentional injury in Australia. Of these: • tractors (n=261) and quads (n=204) were the leading agents causing the fatal injury; • 88.2% of cases (1,440) involved males; • persons aged over 50 years (n=824) accounted for 50.5% of all reported incidents; • children under 15 years were present in 235 cases (14.4%); • only 1,418 cases (86.9%) have been finalised and “closed” by the coroner.

Source: Non-intentional Farm Related Incidents in Australia, AgriFutures Australia publication no. 22-013. Access the full report and learn more at www.agrifutures.com.au/ health-safety.