Farm Safety Code of Practice Goes Online
Wednesday 17th February.
The Health and Safety Authority has today (Wednesday 17th February) launched a new online version of its Farm Safety Code Risk Assessment www.hsa.ie or www.farmsafely.com The free online tool, the first of its kind, was developed with the support of FBD Insurance and is designed to assist farmers in preventing accidents on farms.
Through the system users can generate risk assessments, with customised controls tailored to their farms. Pat Griffin, Senior Inspector with the Health and Safety Authority, believes that farmers will embrace this new system.
“It is widely accepted that Irish farmers are European leaders when it comes to embracing new technologies and farming methods. We also know through our own research that over 83% of farmers have computer access*. I’m sure that this new system will be adopted as a useful tool and will help farmers to comply with the legislation and to reduce the unacceptably high level of accidents in this sector.”
Ciaran Roche, Risk Manager with FBD Insurance, also called on farmers to use the new risk assessment tool.
“FBD are proud to sponsor and to be involved in the development of this valuable risk assessment tool. We would encourage all farmers to log on to www.farmsafely.com and complete their electronic risk assessment. This will help farmers identify and implement necessary safety controls on their farms. We hope that this user-friendly tool will help farmers manage safety on the farm in order to reduce the number of serious accidents and fatalities.”
The major causes of death on farms over the last 10 years have been; Machinery (49%), Livestock (15%), Drowning / Gas (14%) and Falls (10%).
Pat Griffin concluded:
“Last year the sector recorded 11 deaths. While this was a significant improvement on previous years, that was still 11 lives too many lost. Unfortunately 2010 has started badly with 6 deaths recorded already. Farmers must use the Code of Practice to manage safety. This new online system will greatly help in doing that.”
