Friday, March 29, 2024

Agriculture death toll down

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Workplace deaths in agriculture are down so far this year but the rate of quad bike-related fatalities continues.
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WorkSafe statistics showed that, recorded by “focus area”, nine people died in agricultural workplaces before October 1.

Recorded by industry, agriculture had eight deaths, compared to an average of 15 deaths for the same period each year from 2014 to 2016.

The ninth recorded death was from the fishing, hunting and trapping industry, the victim of a quad rollover while working on a farm.

Focus areas differed from industry statistics because they included deaths from other industries.

WorkSafe agriculture sector leader Al McCone said it recorded focus areas to give sectors a full picture of all fatalities in their work environment.

From 2011 to 2017 the agriculture focus area had 124 focus area fatalities.

WorkSafe reported quad bike deaths as a subset of agriculture. By focus area the bikes were involved in 34 of those deaths.

Quad bikes were generally involved in a quarter to a third of all incidents and so far in 2017 the percentage was 30%, at three deaths.

By focus area, construction had 35 deaths since 2011, forestry 33 and manufacturing 18. Adventure activities had 16 and extractive work seven.

The WorkSafe record of agriculture industry deaths for 2017 showed three deaths in January: a tractor rollover in Whangarei, a baler accident in Waimate and a quad bike incident at Waitomo.

In February in the Far North a person was hit by a fence post when a tractor attachment malfunctioned and in March in Waikato a person was struck by an object from behind a tractor.

In April a person in Buller was found dead under a quad bike and in Hamilton a person was found lying head first down a cattle truck ramp. In Christchurch in June a person was struck by forklift.

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