Editorial: The success in slashing deaths on our roads can be applied to farms

For all their multiple dangers, farms are much less dangerous than they were 50 or more years ago. There is a much greater awareness of the perils of slurry, for example, or of machinery. Health and safety rules are far tougher than they were in the recent past. For all the progress there are still deaths caused by various aspects of agriculture, such as vehicle use.

Now the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) has announced an eight month long programme of workplace-based transport inspections on farms across Northern Ireland. There have been 17 fatalities in incidents involving vehicles over the last decade. At an average rate of less than two deaths a year, this is a relatively small number given the size of the farming community. Even so, the HSENI is right to try to drive it down via unannounced visits from inspections.

The principal inspector Camilla Mackey is quoted in this paper saying that such accidents typically involve young people and older farmers. This reflects the high risk nature of both older and younger road users. But there are tight laws with regard to driving on public highways, and it is much easier to enforce what people do on roads than it is on private property.

For years the News Letter has reported on the remarkable successes in pushing down road deaths in Northern Ireland from their atrociously high past levels. Until 15 or so years ago, more than 100 people died on the province’s roads each year. In the 1960s and 70s more than 200 people died annually and in some years more than 300. Now the average is closer to 60 despite far higher traffic levels. There are many reasons for this triumph in saving life: better equipment, better enforcement but also better training of vehicle users and greater success in making them aware of the risks.