Powerline danger greater in modern era: farm safety expert

Farm safety expert Professor Richard Franklin has a message for the rural and agriculture sectors which could save lives.

Cody Smith was killed in an industrial incident at a pineapple farm at Bungundarra on July 14. Picture: Facebook.

Overhead powerlines are a greater risk to the rural and agriculture sectors in the modern era, a farm safety expert has warned.

His comments follow the tragic death of 25-year-old Yeppoon man Cody Smith who was killed after a harvester struck power lines at Lake Mary Pines on Ingrey Road, Bungundarra, at 9.23am on Wednesday.

Workplace Health and Safety investigations into Cody’s tragic death and how the incident unfolded are ongoing.

Professor Richard Franklin has worked in public health, with a focus on injury prevention and safety promotion, for more than 20 years.

He has worked on projects involving farm safety, rural safety, workplace health and safety, and has a PhD from the University of Sydney which explored injuries sustained due to farming and possible prevention strategies.

He has also previously worked for the Queensland Ambulance Service and the Australian Centre for Agricultural Health and Safety.

According to Prof Franklin, who is based in Townsville at James Cook University, the risk of rural machinery and equipment coming into contact with overhead powerlines has increased – and it can be fatal.

“It’s one of the bigger issues, particularly for the harvesting part of agriculture,” he said.

“What we’ve seen is the increase in size of machinery without a reciprocal kind of increase in the powerline heights.

“So you know, a lot of the powerline infrastructure was built 40 or 50 years ago, and while some if it has been replaced, what hasn’t happened is it being replaced at a higher level.

“We’ve seen some of that happen now, which is great, but we hadn’t seen that in the past.

“So what we’ve seen is this significant increase in the size of machinery, including boom devices and arms etc that are on them, which means that they’re more likely to come into contact with powerlines.”

Professor Richard Franklin has worked in public health, with a focus on injury prevention and safety promotion, for more than 20 years.

Prof Franklin said while safety had been improved for machinery like tractors, which had in turn reduced the number of deaths from farming incidents, there was a lot more to be done, including raising awareness.

“While we’ve done a really good job with tractors, like we still see the occasional tractor death, but we were (previously) seeing a lot of tractors rolling over and people dying,” he said.

“But by putting the rollover frames on them, plus people buying bigger machinery with cabs on them, has meant that has become less of an issue.

“Quad bikes are still up there (for farming deaths).

“But every year, on average, we’re seeing a couple of deaths around powerlines right across Australia, which we shouldn’t be.

“This is an area where we shouldn’t be seeing these sorts of things happen.”

Police at the scene of the Wednesday, July 14, 2021 pineapple farm death. The incident occurred at Lake Mary Pines at Bungundarra.

Prof Franklin said work was also being done to educate on the importance of powerline infrastructure placement.

“We are slowly trying to get them to move powerlines, and getting people to rethink the way that they crop around them, and where they (powerlines) should go.

“Previously it was ‘oh yeah the quickest, cheapest way is we’ll just put them (powerlines) straight across the paddock.’

“And you can imagine that trying to farm around powerlines that go through the middle of your paddock is challenging.

“And now what we’re seeing is a lot more (powerlines) running down fencelines or down roadways.

“But also thinking about if they have to be crossed, trying to put them higher to make sure that they’re not going to come into contact with the machinery as part of it.

“And make sure people don’t park underneath powerlines or put pipes and things underneath.

“So we’ve seen a few people touch powerlines with metal pipes as well, that obviously got them in trouble.”

Police tape on a gate at the scene of the Wednesday, July 14, 2021 pineapple farm death. The incident occurred at Lake Mary Pines at Bungundarra.

AgForce Queensland vice-president John Baker, who is based in Middlemount, said powerline safety was a major concern for the farming and agriculture industries.

“It’s across all sectors, it’s not just agriculture,” he said.

“We had the Office of Electrical Safety come around a little while ago and they were trying to raise awareness of the issue and to highlight the dangers of overhead powerlines.

“It is a pretty major concern.

“They were doing some work up around Moranbah because the Issac Regional Council area was in the top six for electrical incidents for the year.”

Mr Baker said this week’s incident near Yeppoon could prompt others to think about their own farming and agriculture operations.

“It is a tragedy what happened.

“It might raise awareness and get people thinking ‘what can I do to make sure this doesn’t happen on my farm or workplace?’.”

Prof Franklin also encouraged people to have a look at their own farming processes following the Bungundarra tragedy.

“It’s a tragedy that unfortunately we see repeated, so anything we can do to raise awareness and get people to think about the way that they work, where they put their machinery, where they are moving it, we should.

“One of the things that I would also recommend to farmers is ‘build back better’.

“So if something does get knocked down or you have a problem, more than just replacing it as is, ask yourself what would work better for you and the way you want to manage your farm, and have a conversation about what that actually looks like.

“I’m encouraging people to do that.”