The title of the debut studio album by Irish band The Cranberries felt like an apt headline for today’s blog as underreporting accidents in farming is all too common. But why do we stay silent when bad things happen? There are a few common reasons for underreporting in health and safety and these are a few suggestions how to fix them.
Underreporting health and safety in farming is where an incident happens but doesn’t get reported. And, while underreporting can make things look better in the short-term, it can lead to bigger problems further down the line.
Reporting accidents and near-misses can save lives, time and money.
Think about it. H&S reporting – whatever the industry – is important. It helps to warn people, to stop future accidents, to fix problems, see trends and identify areas for improvement.
Ultimately, you are not required by law to report near misses unless they fall under the 27 categories of dangerous occurrences outlined under RIDDOR.
In addition to that, if no one has gotten hurt as a result of the unexpected event, why bother making a big deal of reporting it?
According to Henrich’s Triangle, also known as the Accident Triangle, for every 300 near misses, there is one serious accident. However, more recent research has shown that approximately 90 near misses precede one serious accident at work.
As our chair of trustees Jim Chapman, who himself suffered a life-changing injury in the workplace says: “If you were training a dog, would you allow it to do something wrong 90 times before they got it right?” I think the answer to that would be a resounding NO.
The dog would be replaced with a better, smarter, more compliant creature however this doesn’t seem to be the case on farms.
A single serious accident on the farm can result in severe injury, long term ill-health or, as we all know, death, so a more conscious effort is needed to reduce the number of times workers experience these close calls.
Research we carried out in September 2023 revealed that 88% of farmers in the UK believe that ‘complacency’ – always having it done that way – is a major contributor to having an accident while 82% would cite ‘attitude’ as the major contributor.
But like it or not, it is your legal responsibility to ensure that everyone is safe in your workplace and reporting or recording near-misses could allow you to highlight new risks or things that aren’t working for existing risks without having to rely on a lucky escape if, and when that accident does occur.
Near-misses can be brushed off as a joke or turned into a workplace legend that people laugh about behind the boss’ back so they aren’t properly addressed. They’re not a joke and if the boss doesn’t know the danger then, it could be an accident waiting to happen.
Our advice would be to record near-misses but keep the processes simple, give staff the appropriate training and make an effort to change your farm’s culture around farm safety.
These can (and again I will quote our Chairman Jim…) ‘make safety sexy’. It will help normalise conversations around safety, change the attitudes that are too common and help drive that improvement in attitudes and actions that we all want and need to see in farming.
To learn more about accident reporting visit:
RIDDOR – Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 – HSE
Report an incident | Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (hseni.gov.uk)