One in 20 farmers inspected by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) last month were ordered to stop work immediately because of how dangerous their PTO shafts were.
An inspection blitz by the HSA saw just under 350 tractor-focused farm inspections carried out in May.
Inspectors were so concerned about the dangerous lack of PTO guarding, they issued prohibition notices to more than 5% of farmers inspected.
A prohibition notice is a legal instruction directing that a specified work activity be stopped due to the level of danger.
Nineteen prohibition notices were served, ordering farmers to immediately stop using unguarded PTOs on tractors where U-guards were missing and unguarded drive shafts on slurry spreaders, fertiliser spreaders and toppers.
More than half of all farms did not have adequate PTO guards in place on their machines and more than 50% of all inspections resulted in some form of enforcement action being taken by inspectors.
Twenty-five improvement notices were served on farmers, legally directing them to make certain improvements within a specified time frame.
Inspectors also issued 103 reports of inspection where farmers did not comply with farm machinery safety requirements. These included:
44% of farmers did not have safe work systems in place for agitating and spreading slurry. 39% of farmers did not have handbrakes on tractors maintained.53% of farmers were missing PTO guards or they were not well maintained. More than one in five farmers did not record machinery hazards in their Agriculture Code of Practice (CoP) and half had not adequately assessed these risks in their CoP.
Half of all farmers inspected had the required safety measures listed in their action plans, of which 60% had the required safety practices in place.
Livestock inspections
Some 30% of farmers did not have a safe system in place for handling cows while calving, HSA inspectors found in a livestock-focused campaign carried out in March. Some 400 inspections were carried out covering livestock handling and machinery used when handling animals. During that campaign, 14 prohibition notices were served on farmers by inspectors relating to unguarded PTOs on tractors, missing U-guards and farm machinery where dangerous moving parts were exposed. More than one in three farmers (36%) did not have safe systems for agitating and spreading slurry, while one in four (26%) did not have well maintained handbrakes on their tractors.
One in 20 farmers inspected by the Health and Safety Authority (HSA) last month were ordered to stop work immediately because of how dangerous their PTO shafts were.
An inspection blitz by the HSA saw just under 350 tractor-focused farm inspections carried out in May.
Inspectors were so concerned about the dangerous lack of PTO guarding, they issued prohibition notices to more than 5% of farmers inspected.
A prohibition notice is a legal instruction directing that a specified work activity be stopped due to the level of danger.
Nineteen prohibition notices were served, ordering farmers to immediately stop using unguarded PTOs on tractors where U-guards were missing and unguarded drive shafts on slurry spreaders, fertiliser spreaders and toppers.
More than half of all farms did not have adequate PTO guards in place on their machines and more than 50% of all inspections resulted in some form of enforcement action being taken by inspectors.
Twenty-five improvement notices were served on farmers, legally directing them to make certain improvements within a specified time frame.
Inspectors also issued 103 reports of inspection where farmers did not comply with farm machinery safety requirements. These included:
44% of farmers did not have safe work systems in place for agitating and spreading slurry. 39% of farmers did not have handbrakes on tractors maintained.53% of farmers were missing PTO guards or they were not well maintained. More than one in five farmers did not record machinery hazards in their Agriculture Code of Practice (CoP) and half had not adequately assessed these risks in their CoP.
Half of all farmers inspected had the required safety measures listed in their action plans, of which 60% had the required safety practices in place.
Livestock inspections
Some 30% of farmers did not have a safe system in place for handling cows while calving, HSA inspectors found in a livestock-focused campaign carried out in March. Some 400 inspections were carried out covering livestock handling and machinery used when handling animals. During that campaign, 14 prohibition notices were served on farmers by inspectors relating to unguarded PTOs on tractors, missing U-guards and farm machinery where dangerous moving parts were exposed. More than one in three farmers (36%) did not have safe systems for agitating and spreading slurry, while one in four (26%) did not have well maintained handbrakes on their tractors.
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