Tractor incident: East Coast farm worker reports near miss in Safer Farms safety alert

Safer Farms safety alerts encourage farmers to share their experiences to minimise harm on-farm.

A near miss experienced by a North Island farm worker when the tractor park gear failed has been shared as the latest safety alert from Safer Farms.

The employee at the East Coast farm had to jump out of the way as the unmanned vehicle rolled towards him.

The tractor then continued to roll through the farm for 1.2km before trees finally halted it.

According to the alert, the farm staff member was feeding silage to stock and parked the tractor in a gateway, engaging it in park as he went to open the gate.

However, the park gear failed and the worker had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit as the vehicle started rolling.

The safety alert reported that potential causes for the incident included possible wear and tear on the park gear from when operators “throw the tractor into park - rather than coming to a complete stop first”.

The alert said a further factor could be not using backup methods, such as lowering the front forks/hydraulics to the ground before getting out of the cab

“While emergency brakes can also be engaged in conjunction with the Transmission Park Gate, this can cause issues as operators can drive off with the brake on and strain the brake function.”

The alert recommended operators should only engage park once the tractor had fully stopped and that both he park lock and park brake should be applied when parked or operating from a static position.

Operators should also “double-check for movement or instability - even when the park gear/brake is engaged - before leaving the cab”.

“Use a backup method, even if the ground seems relatively flat.”

The alert also underlined the importance of managers providing thorough operator assessment and training.

This meant raising awareness about overloading, including checking the size and weight of loads, ensuring operators knew how to counterbalance the tractor effectively and removing hunger boards from wagons.

More about Safer Farm safety alerts

Safer Farms brings together farmers and senior leaders from across the agribusiness to highlight the sector-wide Farm Without Harm strategy.

Lindy Nelson, chair of Safer Farms and a Farm Without Harm ambassador, said the safety alerts were based on real-life documented incidents and provided important lessons for farmers.

“Safety alerts are about us sharing and learning from one another.”

Nelson said it was a new approach to reducing harm.

“We’re encouraging farmers to discuss the safety alerts with their teams and ask if these incidents could happen on their farm.

“It’s also a good idea to look at what farmers have in place to prevent such an incident happening.”

To view the safety alerts, please visit www.farmwithoutharm.org.nz/safety-alerts.