When a farm worker almost rolled his vehicle while moving cattle on Felicity Richards’ farm a few months ago, she knew just how much worse it could have been.
As the head of Farm Safe Australia the beef farmer is all too aware of the dangers farm workers face.
“Yep, that was a close one,” Ms Richards told AAP.
The young worker escaped uninjured but the frightening experience left all on the farm rattled.
“The choice that he reflected on was ‘I should have just got out and walked’, but he just made the wrong call.”
New data from Farm Safe Australia shows 55 farmers died on the nation’s farms last year as a result of an accident or other incident.
Some 64 per cent of those deaths were linked to farm vehicles or mobile farm machinery.
The deaths are highlighted in the group’s Safer Farms report, released on Sunday to mark National Farm Safety Week.
The figures signal a return to more injuries and fatalities after 46 deaths were recorded in 2021.
It also gives agriculture the unenviable title of the most dangerous Australian industry to work in.
Trying to turn that around, Farm Safety Australia has launched a new campaign ‘stay on the safe side.’
With tractor accidents still the leading cause of death among the nation’s farmers the campaign focuses on tractor safety.
“We don’t want to preach to farmers… but we just want them to stop and remember that they have the power to make safe decisions,” she said.
Ms Richards said the report recognised that there had been safety improvements on farms, which have saved lives.
In the early 1980’s, Australia was averaging 24 tractor rollover deaths a year and by 2004 that number was down to six.
The introduction in 1981 of Australian safety standards to protect the driver when tractors roll has been credited for the reduction in deaths.
Ms Richards is still “deeply distressed” that farm deaths are being recorded, and that the majority of fatalities are still men over 45.
“Complacency can be very dangerous in farming because we know there can be a huge amount of experience at play, but we can still make poor decisions,” she said.