Study puts focus on farm-related deaths

These results from a study called 'Protecting the future: Fatal incidents on Australian farms involving children (2001-2019)' were presented at the recent Farmsafe Virtual Conference by Ag Health Australia farm safety research officer Kerri-Lynn Peachey.

With farms unique in that the work and home environments intersect, the purpose of the study was to describe "non-intentional injury deaths" of children 14 years and under in Australia from 2001 to 2019 and the "casual agents" associated with these fatalities.

"From 2001 to 2019, 1480 people lost their lives to unintentional injury deaths (on farms) across Australia - which equates to about 78 deaths per year," Ms Peachey said.

"Of the 1480 farm incidents, those in the 0-14 years category accounted for 15pc of all on-farm non-intentional injury deaths.

"Those from 0-4 years recorded the fourth highest number for injuries this period.

"Children in the 0-4 year age group accounted for over half of all child deaths."

The results highlighted agriculture as one of the most consistently dangerous industries in Australia, with children at high risk of coming into contact with dams, water storage, utes, motorcycles, mobile farm machinery, tractors and animals such as horses and cattle, all of which may cause fatal injury.

"Most of the fatal injuries occurred as a result of the following mechanisms - falling and being run over by agricultural machinery or farm vehicles, asphyxia from drowning and being run over by agricultural machinery or farm vehicles as a bystander and major crush injuries of the head, neck, chest and abdomen," Ms Peachey said.

"Children who were bystanders to farm work or being cared for while undertaking farm duties are represented in the results," Ms Peachey said.

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Water bodies, quads, tractors, utes, cars and motorbikes accounted for about 75pc of all fatal events in the study.

While there is little current child specific data on farm fatalities and injuries in Australia, Ms Peachey said it was important to investigate if the safety messages and approaches were improving child safety on farms.

"Child safety is a highly emotive issue and the lack of progress in reducing child-related incidents outlined in this study points to a need to ramp up intervention approaches," Ms Peachey said.

While the study investigated fatal injuries, she said the burden of non-fatal injuries was also significant.

"The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reported that more than 2000 children were hospitalised due to a farm related injury in the 2010-2015 period," Ms Peachey said.

"Motorcycles and quads predominated accounting for 42pc of all hospitalisations.

"The leading cause of injury for males was motorcycles and quads and for females the leading cause was horses."