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Farm accident stories...be careful folks!!

exercise is the antidote

Thought it might be a good idea for people to share there stories of near accidents or lucky escapes on the farm as it might open everybody's eyes to how dangerous farming is...and to stop taking risks..

had a heifer try to jump over my neighbour today as he was trying to change her direction, she knocked him to the ground and narrowly missed standing on him(thank god)..She then proceeded to hit a old gate off it's hindges like it wasn't there.. Could of ended a lot worse!

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Aska

Greengrass1 wrote: »

In absolute shock here ATM is an understatement.
Well known farmer that I learnt an awful lot from on my first placement drowned this morning while getting some piece that fell into a man hole from parlour.

Full of brains and knowledge and only knew how to do things things the right way

Honestly cannot believe it. Was always very conscious about safety

Shock indeed, I got my first job in farming (before I hit the artics for 14 years) with him 18 years ago, only 4 years older than me. Nice guy, a real worker. His mothers sheep use to give me nightmares as I have nothing to do with the fuzzy feckers in my life

sh1tstirrer

onyerbikepat wrote: »

If things continue they way they are, it's only a metter of time before the authorities start surprise, on the spot safety inspections.
PTO covers, cattle handling facilities, you name it.

I know that there have been too many farm accidents lately but why do they make such a big issue out of it over road deaths?

Blackgrass

Was in old mans discussion group way back in the day, local to the uncle could always pick an awkward question to start a row'discussion' in a few camps iirc

but then no there to chat about the weather...
Very sad.

vincenzolorenzo

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

I know that there have been too many farm accidents lately but why do they make such a big issue out of it over road deaths?

Because by highlighting the extremely high number of deaths it will keep it at the forefront of peoples minds and hopefully reduce the number of deaths. Also the numbers of drivers on road is far higher than number of farmers in the country so the number of deaths will be higher

dunlopwellies

catreyn wrote: »

ICE numbers are useless on a smartphone if you have a pin lock on the phone. Just for those who didn't know, Apple now have an app called 'Health'. You can enter details on this, such as medical history, blood type, whether you wish to be an organ donor, as well as emergency contacts. This information is available when you hit 'Emergency' on the lock screen of your phone.

I don't suppose you have more info on this app or a link. I can't find if on App Store. It sounds like am excellent idea.
Thanks.

Zr105

dunlopwellies wrote: »

I don't suppose you have more info on this app or a link. I can't find if on App Store. It sounds like am excellent idea.
Thanks.

If you have an apple phone and have updated the software to the latest version there should be an app on the phone called health, it may be in the utilities folder if your phone automatically bunches them up

Kevin the sheep

John was a good man who did everything right as gg said he got caught in a tank above ground no water in it leaned into it to put a piece of rubber back onto a pipe in tank with his feet off of the ground and got caught on a little piece of steel while leaned into tank that was to keep the lid closed opening was only a foot and a half wide and couldn't get himself off of it and passed away may he RIP

Reggie.

Kevin the sheep wrote: »

John was a good man who did everything right as gg said he got caught in a tank above ground no water in it leaned into it to put a piece of rubber back onto a pipe in tank with his feet off of the ground and got caught on a little piece of steel while leaned into tank that was to keep the lid closed opening was only a foot and a half wide and couldn't get himself off of it and passed away may he RIP

If the tank was empty was it the fumes he succumbed to

Greengrass1

Kevin the sheep wrote: »

John was a good man who did everything right as gg said he got caught in a tank above ground no water in it leaned into it to put a piece of rubber back onto a pipe in tank with his feet off of the ground and got caught on a little piece of steel while leaned into tank that was to keep the lid closed opening was only a foot and a half wide and couldn't get himself off of it and passed away may he RIP

Hope everything is running smoothly ATM down there kev.
Loads of help around if needed.

Kevin the sheep

Reggie. wrote: »

If the tank was empty was it the fumes he succumbed to[/

Reggie.

Kevin the sheep wrote: »

No pressure of himself upside down they think heart gave out but don't know for sure yet

I was afraid you were going to say that. Horrible way to go. RIP

Chemical Byrne

On a neighbouring beef farm twas only a stroke of luck that there aren't 2 funerals on this week.
The slatted tank was full and himself was moving it somewhere or spreading a bit! He was agitating and he went inside the shed to monitor how the slurry was moving about and, you probably guessed it, he was overcome by fumes and collapsed.
A regular worker he has who was at some other task happened to see him slumped over inside and obviously rushed in to save him and dragged him out into the air and revived him. In fairness what else would you do but it's lucky the two of them aren't dead.

When will people learn. I think it is almost time all slatted sheds should have to be fitted with a H2S/methane alarm system. And providing an emergency breathing apparatus for a rescuer to use in the event of the worst happening.
The difficulty with this is that farmers will come to depend on such systems and become even more flippant. Will they even keep their maintenance and training on such systems up to date or is it more likely it'll break and be forgotten.

I work in civil engineering consultancy and confined spaces in all sorts of situations are treated very seriously with regard to safety in design and operation. IMO a slatted shed is a confined space and a pretty high risk one at that. (confined space = enclosed space + particular risk, ie slatted shed plus methane/H2S)
Something like a wastewater pumping station has similar risks to a slatted shed and will be fitted with multiple and redundant alarms and access will be barred to all but those who have confined spaces and breathing apparatus training. A slatted shed has the exact same risks and nothing of the sort is needed! Its mad.

Its mad but it is understandable at least. I suspect a large part of the problem is that family farms in particular are small and margins are almost non existent. To enforce such regulations would place huge financial strain on farming enterprises and as such would be hugely unpopular politically so therefore nothing will change any time soon. However I also suspect that as the carrot approach to safety on farms is not working the stick approach might end up being used with regulations tightening and being enforced with penalties.
Same thing happened with construction 15 yrs ago. Huge numbers of deaths and the softly softly approach to improving safety culture failed to regulations were made very rigorous and penalties were made so severe that no-one was willing to risk breaking them. Safety improved immeasureably. Downside was the additional costs which are passed on to the client ultimately. Difficulty with farming is that there is no client to whom the costs can be passed, we are at the whims of factories, creameries etc etc.

Food for thought.

einn32

Chemical Byrne wrote:

I work in civil engineering consultancy and confined spaces in all sorts of situations are treated very seriously with regard to safety in design and operation. IMO a slatted shed is a confined space and a pretty high risk one at that. (confined space = enclosed space + particular risk, ie slatted shed plus methane/H2S) Something like a wastewater pumping station has similar risks to a slatted shed and will be fitted with multiple and redundant alarms and access will be barred to all but those who have confined spaces and breathing apparatus training. A slatted shed has the exact same risks and nothing of the sort is needed! Its mad.

when i worked in uk there were regulations for defining a confined space and what is required to enter them. Not sure about Eire but a slatted tank is a confined space with toxic gas but people seem to not care or know the dangers.

Had lad spreading slurry here last year and the slurry pipe fell in. He says get a ladder...I'll go in and get it...I've done it before. I was startled. I said I'll try sort it or else it's staying there. I got it out with a length of rebar. We all do stupid things including myself but I think common sense and planning a job goes a long way. If he had left the safety cover down on the manhole it would not have happened.

It's the culture that has to change. I think the soft approach is over as it ain't working.

onyerbikepat

Kevin the sheep wrote: »

John was a good man who did everything right as gg said he got caught in a tank above ground no water in it leaned into it to put a piece of rubber back onto a pipe in tank with his feet off of the ground and got caught on a little piece of steel while leaned into tank that was to keep the lid closed opening was only a foot and a half wide and couldn't get himself off of it and passed away may he RIP

Jeez, that's very sad. :mad:

Farmer Pudsey

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Its mad but it is understandable at least. I suspect a large part of the problem is that family farms in particular are small and margins are almost non existent. To enforce such regulations would place huge financial strain on farming enterprises and as such would be hugely unpopular politically so therefore nothing will change any time soon. However I also suspect that as the carrot approach to safety on farms is not working the stick approach might end up being used with regulations tightening and being enforced with penalties.
Same thing happened with construction 15 yrs ago. Huge numbers of deaths and the softly softly approach to improving safety culture failed to regulations were made very rigorous and penalties were made so severe that no-one was willing to risk breaking them. Safety improved immeasureably. Downside was the additional costs which are passed on to the client ultimately. Difficulty with farming is that there is no client to whom the costs can be passed, we are at the whims of factories, creameries etc etc.

Food for thought.

Article in today's FI by Ann Fotzgearld. Do not often read her articles as find little of interest since John Shirley has gone. Maybe it is a gender thing but they are more into sucklers etc.

However she makes the point and I make the same myself it is the continual pressure on farm incomes, working alone and age are the main causes. It is alright to sugest carrot and stick but as with most it will hardly be possible to ne fining or cutting a farmers payment when he is in the grave. I was suprised that the most dangerous farms are dairy farms. however it is understandable in that most of these are full time and totall dependant on income from farming. She makes the point that with quota's gone this will put more pressure on farm incomes especially on farms that cannot expand.

IMO it really is a case of too tight margins and investment in anything is limited. Working alone a lot is another huge issue especially at calving time and slurry. This is not just a farming issue it is for workers in general. I see where big companies have subcontracted physical work to smaller companies and try to pust as much responsibility for H&S onto ordinary workers however they structure pay and travel time in such a way that it increases danger to the workers.

Was recently talking to a lad that was employed in such an operation. He was expected to cover the first 90 minutes travel time in both directions himself. He then had to sign each week that he takes an hours break every day. His average day was 12+ hours from generally about an 11 hour to 14 hour days. As he said he arrives home in the evening has the dinner a shower and goes to bed.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

I have no idea how we weren't killed on the farm as kids. Some of the accidents I had -
- 2 years old, tried grab a fan belt on the tractor only for it to cut the top
Of my finger off.
- getting caught in that escalator for the square bales and getting them into the shed. It tore my shirt off but my father got it off before it tangled me in it.
- sitting backwards on the grubber and when it lowered down it caught my legs underneath it
- falling out of the bucket of a jcb
- having a calf feeding from a bucket lift his head up and smash my nose
- sitting in the trailer but someone forgot to secure it down and it ended up tipping me and my brother out on the road
- sitting on a bale lifter (at 23, old enough to know better) my brother flying around the field, hit a bump pretty fast, the bale lifter came off the tractor and straight down on my ankle. 3 broken bones and a dislocation, and could hear the bone breaking over the sound of everything else.

My dad had broken leg, and broken ribs.

My brother fell underneath a trailer load of turf and got his leg driven over

Chemical Byrne

Farmer Pudsey wrote: »

Was recently talking to a lad that was employed in such an operation. He was expected to cover the first 90 minutes travel time in both directions himself. He then had to sign each week that he takes an hours break every day. His average day was 12+ hours from generally about an 11 hour to 14 hour days. As he said he arrives home in the evening has the dinner a shower and goes to bed.

And probably getting paid minimum wage or marginally above it for his troubles. A busy fool by the sounds of it. Working those hours is setting one's self up for an accident through fatigue. Even outside of accidents, what's that sort of work going to do to one's mental and physical health in the long term.
If I were he, I would make every effort to reeducate and get an actual career rather than live a life of dangerous drudgery and wage slavery.

I said

LexieOnRale wrote: »

I have no idea how we weren't killed on the farm as kids. Some of the accidents I had -
- 2 years old, tried grab a fan belt on the tractor only for it to cut the top
Of my finger off.
- getting caught in that escalator for the square bales and getting them into the shed. It tore my shirt off but my father got it off before it tangled me in it.
- sitting backwards on the grubber and when it lowered down it caught my legs underneath it
- falling out of the bucket of a jcb
- having a calf feeding from a bucket lift his head up and smash my nose
- sitting in the trailer but someone forgot to secure it down and it ended up tipping me and my brother out on the road
- sitting on a bale lifter (at 23, old enough to know better) my brother flying around the field, hit a bump pretty fast, the bale lifter came off the tractor and straight down on my ankle. 3 broken bones and a dislocation, and could hear the bone breaking over the sound of everything else.

My dad had broken leg, and broken ribs.

My brother fell underneath a trailer load of turf and got his leg driven over

Mother of jaysus

Reggie.

I said wrote: »

Mother if jaysus

Thinking the same. You shouldn't have been let out of the house

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Reggie. wrote: »

Thinking the same. You shouldn't have been let out of the house

To be fair that's over my entire life

Farmer Pudsey

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

And probably getting paid minimum wage or marginally above it for his troubles. A busy fool by the sounds of it. Working those hours is setting one's self up for an accident through fatigue. Even outside of accidents, what's that sort of work going to do to one's mental and physical health in the long term.
If I were he, I would make every effort to reeducate and get an actual career rather than live a life of dangerous drudgery and wage slavery.

Would be at or near the average industrail wage, some of them are electricians involved in this type of work. It is all very well to say they should change there careers, I imagine lads installing the water meters are at the same crack and so are lads working for companies involved in road building. Most have little or no choice. This busy fool idea and the idea that the lad can change is career is often a blinkered view of the reality. Farming is much the same choices are limited. Even if this lad did leave someone else would be doing it tomorrow.

He made the point taht if the economy lifted he might have the choice of moving to a different work area however at present his choice is this to put bread on the table and pay a mortgage. Too many do not relize about the real world out there. There answer is blame the invidual resposible rather than look at the reality. In general H&S always came down to money if you had it you could make choices. Bigger employers have now delegated this to smaller companies that have to compete for the work. So they cut costs where ever possible. The project manager in his cosy office cares little, the only cost that generally acn be cut is workers wages or a farmers margin

Chemical Byrne

Jesus lexie. That is absolutely appalling. Your parents should be up for negligence or child abuse or something for permitting that sort of completely moronic recklessness to persist despite repeated incidents.

What in blue faced Jesus's name was A 2 YEAR OLD doing within 100 feet of an active farmyard not to mind a running tractor's fan belt?
Children should not be within an assess roar of a farmyard when work is taking place. FFS if got out anywhere that children were on building sites and going around hanging out of the cabs of excavators and dumpers or hanging around pipelines and deep excavations there would be war and heads would roll for it, and rightly so.

Don't get me started on 16 year old CHILDREN being legally allowed to drive all sorts of heavy machinery and 80km/hr Fastracs with 40' trailer with nothing other than a learner permit while to drive a small rigid truck one needs training and CPC etc etc not to even mention the training and certifications required to operate so much as a JCB digger on a proper construction site. No doubt this loophole is a relic of a bygone era when a Massey 35 was the largest piece of machinery likely to be encountered on any farm. But nothing will change in a hurry as to reform the system would be immensely unpopular and any politician who proposes such reform, no matter how necessary or well intentioned, would be committing political suicide, the weapon of choice being the ire of farmers and the IFA -untrained and impressionable 16 year olds are just too damn handy as cheap labour and might be ignorant of their rights.
(OT but on the point of construction you should see some of the outrageous proposals on this forum by farmers proposing to build sheds etc who suggest wacky things like welding structural steel at height out of the bucket of a loader.)

That is the problem with family farms. Familiarity breeds contempt and results in maiming and death on a grand scale.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Jesus lexie. That is absolutely appalling. Your parents should be up for negligence or child abuse or something for permitting that sort of completely moronic recklessness to persist despite repeated incidents.

What in blue faced Jesus's name was A 2 YEAR OLD doing within 100 feet of an active farmyard not to mind a running tractor's fan belt?
Children should not be within an assess roar of a farmyard when work is taking place. FFS if got out anywhere that children were on building sites and going around hanging out of the cabs of excavators and dumpers or hanging around pipelines and deep excavations there would be war and heads would roll for it, and rightly so.

Don't get me started on 16 year old CHILDREN being legally allowed to drive all sorts of heavy machinery and 80km/hr Fastracs with 40' trailer with nothing other than a learner permit while to drive a small rigid truck one needs training and CPC etc etc not to even mention the training and certifications required to operate so much as a JCB digger on a proper construction site. No doubt this loophole is a relic of a bygone era when a Massey 35 was the largest piece of machinery likely to be encountered on any farm. But nothing will change in a hurry as to reform the system would be immensely unpopular and any politician who proposes such reform, no matter how necessary or well intentioned, would be committing political suicide, the weapon of choice being the ire of farmers and the IFA -untrained and impressionable 16 year olds are just too damn handy as cheap labour and might be ignorant of their rights.
(OT but on the point of construction you should see some of the outrageous proposals on this forum by farmers proposing to build sheds etc who suggest wacky things like welding structural steel at height out of the bucket of a loader.)

That is the problem with family farms. Familiarity breeds contempt and results in maiming and death on a grand scale.

To be fair I don't think its fair to blame the parents. I know I was my fathers shadow. You could not keep me inside. I was out under his arm the whole time, the poor man couldn't go to the bathroom without me. With the tractor, we were going to one of the fields and I guess he stopped to put diesel in it and bam - all it takes is a split second

ganmo

LexieOnRale wrote: »

I have no idea how we weren't killed on the farm as kids. Some of the accidents I had -
- 2 years old, tried grab a fan belt on the tractor only for it to cut the top
Of my finger off.
- getting caught in that escalator for the square bales and getting them into the shed. It tore my shirt off but my father got it off before it tangled me in it.
- sitting backwards on the grubber and when it lowered down it caught my legs underneath it
- falling out of the bucket of a jcb
- having a calf feeding from a bucket lift his head up and smash my nose
- sitting in the trailer but someone forgot to secure it down and it ended up tipping me and my brother out on the road
- sitting on a bale lifter (at 23, old enough to know better) my brother flying around the field, hit a bump pretty fast, the bale lifter came off the tractor and straight down on my ankle. 3 broken bones and a dislocation, and could hear the bone breaking over the sound of everything else.

My dad had broken leg, and broken ribs.

My brother fell underneath a trailer load of turf and got his leg driven over

you need to stop sitting :P

Chemical Byrne

LexieOnRale wrote: »

To be fair I don't think its fair to blame the parents. I know I was my fathers shadow. You could not keep me inside. I was out under his arm the whole time, the poor man couldn't go to the bathroom without me. With the tractor, we were going to one of the fields and I guess he stopped to put diesel in it and bam - all it takes is a split second

On the contrary, I think parents are very much to blame. True I understand the sentiment that circumstances can be very difficult when trying to be a farmer and parent due to extremely tight margins and little time but that is not an acceptable excuse in my opinion. The duty of a parent, above all else, is to ensure the well being and safety of their child. A parent who knowingly exposes their child to a risk of injury or death on a farm or wherever is failing in that duty.
Would people be so forgiving if some excavator operator on an NRA roads scheme had their son in the cab and he falls out under the tracks? I doubt it.
Yet we routinely see kids of 5 or 6 bouncing around in tractor cabs with no back windows! Every time I see it I want to pull the driver over and break his jaw!

I differ on construction workers, meter installers etc, being exposed to similar risk and recklessness in their jobs as alluded to above. True, it can be dangerous and they work hard and are under pressure but H&S in construction is VERY VERY tightly regulated now due to the extreme death and injury rates say 20-25 years ago and it has worked as deaths in construction are way down. I have no statistics to hand but I recall that construction is now much much safer than farming which is the No. 1 workplace killer in Ireland. But as I said, construction firms can pass on the cost of H&S to the client, farmers cannot and so here we are!

And before someone accuses me of being some jumped up out of touch Jackeen who never set foot in a field, I say all the above as someone who grew up on a farm and worked on many neighbours farms in the summers.
And yes I did have near ones and came within millimeters of losing all the fingers on my left hand in an accident with a drum mower. "Luckily" i escaped with a very badly crushed thumb that is still not right 14 years on. The cause? An immature, incompetent and untrained 14 year old doing something he really didn't understand and did not realise he was dealing with a piece of defective equipment.

Nowadays I work in infrastructure design and I agree that H&S regulation can be frustrating at times when it is misapplied in inappropriate ways but by and large it works well and is very very necessary.

mayota

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Jesus lexie. That is absolutely appalling. Your parents should be up for negligence or child abuse or something for permitting that sort of completely moronic recklessness to persist despite repeated incidents.

What in blue faced Jesus's name was A 2 YEAR OLD doing within 100 feet of an active farmyard not to mind a running tractor's fan belt?
Children should not be within an assess roar of a farmyard when work is taking place. FFS if got out anywhere that children were on building sites and going around hanging out of the cabs of excavators and dumpers or hanging around pipelines and deep excavations there would be war and heads would roll for it, and rightly so.

Don't get me started on 16 year old CHILDREN being legally allowed to drive all sorts of heavy machinery and 80km/hr Fastracs with 40' trailer with nothing other than a learner permit while to drive a small rigid truck one needs training and CPC etc etc not to even mention the training and certifications required to operate so much as a JCB digger on a proper construction site. No doubt this loophole is a relic of a bygone era when a Massey 35 was the largest piece of machinery likely to be encountered on any farm. But nothing will change in a hurry as to reform the system would be immensely unpopular and any politician who proposes such reform, no matter how necessary or well intentioned, would be committing political suicide, the weapon of choice being the ire of farmers and the IFA -untrained and impressionable 16 year olds are just too damn handy as cheap labour and might be ignorant of their rights.
(OT but on the point of construction you should see some of the outrageous proposals on this forum by farmers proposing to build sheds etc who suggest wacky things like welding structural steel at height out of the bucket of a loader.)

That is the problem with family farms. Familiarity breeds contempt and results in maiming and death on a grand scale.

I wasn't shocked reading Lexie's post. When growing up myself and siblings would be out from morning til night up to all sorts and not a heed taken. Got knocked out by bullock kick to head when about 8 and again by swinging gate. Plenty of other cuts and bruises including needing stitches. Have a 2 and half year old now and will never leave her unsupervised as we were.

Chemical Byrne

ganmo wrote: »

you need to stop sitting :P

Oh yeah, lol, it's all a great laugh isn't it.

Dope.

vincenzolorenzo

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Jesus lexie. That is absolutely appalling. Your parents should be up for negligence or child abuse or something for permitting that sort of completely moronic recklessness to persist despite repeated incidents.

What in blue faced Jesus's name was A 2 YEAR OLD doing within 100 feet of an active farmyard not to mind a running tractor's fan belt?
Children should not be within an assess roar of a farmyard when work is taking place. FFS if got out anywhere that children were on building sites and going around hanging out of the cabs of excavators and dumpers or hanging around pipelines and deep excavations there would be war and heads would roll for it, and rightly so.

Don't get me started on 16 year old CHILDREN being legally allowed to drive all sorts of heavy machinery and 80km/hr Fastracs with 40' trailer with nothing other than a learner permit while to drive a small rigid truck one needs training and CPC etc etc not to even mention the training and certifications required to operate so much as a JCB digger on a proper construction site. No doubt this loophole is a relic of a bygone era when a Massey 35 was the largest piece of machinery likely to be encountered on any farm. But nothing will change in a hurry as to reform the system would be immensely unpopular and any politician who proposes such reform, no matter how necessary or well intentioned, would be committing political suicide, the weapon of choice being the ire of farmers and the IFA -untrained and impressionable 16 year olds are just too damn handy as cheap labour and might be ignorant of their rights.
(OT but on the point of construction you should see some of the outrageous proposals on this forum by farmers proposing to build sheds etc who suggest wacky things like welding structural steel at height out of the bucket of a loader.)

That is the problem with family farms. Familiarity breeds contempt and results in maiming and death on a grand scale.

Agree with pretty much everything you said, even if you do sound like a keyboard warrior on a high horse mission. The lad was talking about when he was a kid, not what he does today with his own kids (if any). Ireland has changed a lot in the intervening years and yes I know farming practices are still very poor when it comes to H&S but I don't know anyone nowadays that would let that litany of injuries happen to their kids on a farm.

One point however, of the 20 or so people killed on irish farms last year, how many were teenage drivers of fast tractors and/or heavy machinery? I don't have the stats but I'd say its a very low number. IMO the biggest at risk group is older farmers who don't 'see' the risk in their practices because they've done it forever. Also slatted houses seem to have become the number 1 risk on farms today. When I was growing up the biggest fear was always PTO's, I'd say they're a distant second or third place in the list of risk now

ganmo

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

Oh yeah, lol, it's all a great laugh isn't it.

Dope.

Bringing attention to the fact that 4 of Lexie's accidents happened in the same way while making light of it gave you licence to insult me?

Chemical Byrne

ganmo wrote: »

Bringing attention to the fact that 4 of Lexie's accidents happened in the same way while making light of it gave you licence to insult me?

This thread is on a very serious subject. I think it is YOU who is behaving in an insulting manner by cracking jokes about it. Would you be so flippant if it were your son or daughter who was the victim?