OSH calls for farmers to think "safety"

Monday 4 October 1999

The Occupational Safety and Health Service today called on farmers to think seriously about their safety while they are at work.

The message comes on the first day of this year’s national WorkSafe Week at an ATV (all terrain vehicle) training course being run by OSH in association with Blue Wing Honda.

The ATV, or four-wheel farm bike, training is one of several courses being held in the lower North Island over the week involving people from the farming and forestry industries.

According to OSH General Manager Bob Hill it is sadly appropriate that ATVs are the initial focus of WorkSafe Week 1999.

"Last year ATVs killed more New Zealanders at work than anything else, accounting for seven of the 44 workplace fatalities.

"The rural sector makes a huge positive contribution to New Zealand in so many ways. Having the number one workplace killer however is not one of them.

"ATVs are an increasingly vital part of farming life so it is important that everyone who uses them is aware of their lethal potential.

"The ‘it won’t happen to me’ attitude is killing and injuring people at work. I implore the rural community to stop and take the sobering thought, what if it does?

"It is easy to measure the number of people who are dying but it is impossible to the measure the impact on the lives of those left behind.

"Agriculture along with forestry and construction remain at the top of the list of high-risk industries. I hope that WorkSafe Week 1999 prompts all employers and employees, not just those in the rural sector, to think about how to improve New Zealand’s health and safety record," Bob said.

WorkSafe Week is part of OSH’s "Together to Zero: Eliminating Workplace Deaths strategy which was launched in 1997. The aim of the strategy is to encourage employers, employees and the wider community to work in partnership with OSH to lower the rate of death and industry at work.

In keeping with the aim of getting wider involvement in health and safety, the theme of this year’s WorkSafe Week is "Play your Part".

"A really pleasing aspect of the ATV training, like many of the WorkSafe Week activities around the country, is that it is so closely aligned with our aim of working in partnership to attack workplace death and injury.

"It is only through the combined efforts of employees, employers, industry organisations and OSH that there will be a significant drop in death and injury at work," Bob concluded.