Quad bike death after 'low risk' classification

The 45-year-old father of three was killed when the bike he was riding rolled into a ditch on the farm, 12km from Hamilton. Photo / iStock

Farming groups say change in ‘number 8 wire mentality’ needed to improve safety.

A day after the Government pushed new health and safety legislation through Parliament - which classified most farms as low risk - a sharemilker died in a quad bike accident on a Waikato property.

The 45-year-old father of three was killed when the bike he was riding rolled into a ditch on the farm, 12km from Hamilton. His was the latest farm fatality, which now totals 108 deaths since January 2010. The total includes 26 quad bike deaths. Overall, 299 workplace fatalities were reported to Worksafe in that period.

There were 35 mining fatalities and 32 construction deaths. All other industries recorded fewer than 30 deaths over the time period.

Federated Farmers says the new legislation would help the agricultural sector to address the high level of workplace incidents and fatalities on farms.

"Farmers know this performance is not good enough," said board member Katie Milne.

"We and our members accept that current safety performance is not good enough and the changes being brought about by the bill are just some of the ways that we'll continue to address this."

WorkSafe's agriculture programme manager Al McCone said a change in culture across the industry was the simple solution.

"Culturally, New Zealand as a whole has to stop regarding a finger lopped off during work activity as a 'badge of honour' - a 'look I survived this accident' approach. A survived injury in a workplace is often nothing more than a death avoided," he said.

"Until that change in attitude towards health and safety takes place in farming, people will still be injured in the workplace, and the emotional and financial cost to everyone involved in the sector will remain high."

Mr McCone said there were a variety of reasons why farming had the highest number of injuries and fatalities.

"Farming requires a wide mixture of skill sets, including driving vehicles, operating large machinery, conducting basic engineering, handling stock - including large undomesticated animals, operating or using a wide variety of small tools, financial management, and pastoral management.

"The businesses these skills are exercised in have a seven-day working week, are located across a wide variety of terrain and require outside, physical work in a variety of weather conditions. The sector has a history of wresting a living through innovation, number 8 wire mentality, long hours and minimum staff numbers.

"All of these things combine into a potent mixture of risk which needs to be managed. Changing the culture in farming will not stifle the innovation - it will simply make farms safer places to work."