WorkSafe Victoria: Six people die in 2019 from farm-related injuries
A pre-Christmas death added to Victoria’s on-farm fatalities list in 2019, new WorkSafe figures reveal, with officials calling for a safer start to the new decade.
SIX on-farm deaths occurred in Victoria last year, less than half the 2017 rate, official figures confirm.
The 2019 figure represents a steady decrease in farm deaths from 14 in 2017 to eight in 2018 — although two children were included in last year’s workplace toll.
A two-year-old boy died after an incident on a farm at Naringal in the state’s south-west in January while a three-year-old boy died after being thrown from a side-by-side vehicle being driven by his father on a farm at Deddick.
WorkSafe health and safety director Julie Nielsen said on-farm deaths made up 24 per cent of all workplace fatalities, despite agriculture employing around three per cent of the state’s workforce.
“While WorkSafe welcomes a drop in the number of on-farm deaths in 2019, the simple fact is that farms remain one of Victoria’s most deadly places to work,” Ms Nielsen said.
The other on-farm fatalities included an incident involving a 28-year-old man, who was buried in soil at the base of a dry dam he was excavating at a Gelantipy property.
Just days before Christmas, a 44-year-old man died after the tractor he was driving rolled down a hill on a property at Hill End in West Gippsland.
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