Another farmer killed by tractor

Acting Insp Matt Kehoe

ANOTHER man has died following the second tractor accident on the Northern Rivers within a week.

The accident occurred on a rural property at Ellangowan, near Tatham, just after 8am on Sunday when the 65-year-old man was run over.

It is believed the victim, who was helping his neighbour, had been riding on the back of the tractor when it hit a bump causing him to lose his footing.

Lismore detectives and officers from the Ballina Crash Investigation Unit attended the scene of the tragedy.

Acting Inspector Matt Kehoe said it appeared the jolt threw the victim over the rear wheel of the tractor before he was run over.

Despite attempts by the tractor driver and paramedics to revive the man he died at the scene.

“This is the second accident in a week involving heavy machinery that has resulted in the death of two local farmers,” Act Insp Kehoe said. “We are stressing to local farmers to take extreme care when operating this kind of machinery on rural properties.

“Obviously our thoughts go out to the families involved.”

Acting Insp Kehoe said it was too early to determine the cause of the two accidents, but WorkCover was assisting the police investigation.

“We will be preparing briefs on both incidents for the Coroner,” he said.

“I couldn’t tell you when our last fatal tractor accident was, and it’s unfortunate to have two in a week.”

Last Tuesday, a Teven sugarcane farmer believed to be in his seventies was killed after his front-end loader rolled over into an irrigation drain late in the afternoon.

John Temperley, the program leader of the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety and executive officer of Farmsafe Australia, was saddened but not surprised to hear of the deaths as an Australian farmer still dies every three days in work-related accidents.

He said tractors were still the single biggest cause of deaths – involving run-overs, roll-overs, entanglement in exposed power shafts, and people riding on, or jumping on or off moving tractors.

Mr Temperley said the introduction of compulsory rollbars had reduced the incidence of deaths from roll-overs, which still accounted for 30 per cent of tractor deaths.

While all farm tractors are required to have rollbars, or be retrofitted, he said he still saw many old tractors without the safety device.

“The message is tractors are still causing too many deaths on farms,” he said.

While there had been a steady decline in farm worker injuries and fatalities throughout the 1990s as a result of the implementation of WorkCover OH&S regulations, over the same period there had been a dramatic rise in farm manager injuries and deaths, particularly in the 60 to 85-year-old age group.

Due to the nature of farm operations, particularly family-owned operations, statistics are difficult to compile as authorities believe many accidents are not reported.

A 2005 Federal Government report identified further difficulties in accessing accurate information, specifically the lack of a single database for statistics and the lag period in the collection of data.