Farming remains most dangerous UK occupation with 33 lives lost

Figures from the Health and Safety Executive showed that a total of 33 people working in agriculture lost their lives between April 2011 and March 2012 - three more than the previous year.

While there were more deaths in construction, 49, the death rate in farming per 100,000 people is 9.7, compared with 2.3 per 100,000 in construction.

Both the HSE and the National Farmers’ Union have been working for some years now to try and reduce the accident rate in agriculture, where solitary working, the use of heavy machinery and close proximity to animals often pose dangers. Just this week an East Yorkshire farmers was fined after a 20-year-old man working on his farm suffered serious injuries in a fall.

Daniel Boldan Hoggard was on the roof trying to repair a leak between two adjoining farm buildings at Low Hunsley Farm in Cottingham when he tripped and smashed through one of six roof lights, landing on the concrete floor, puncturing a lung and kidney as well as cracking four vertebrae last July.

Judith Hackitt, the HSE chairman, said: “This is the real tragedy of health and safety failures – lives cut short and loved ones lost.

“We want employers to focus on the real risks that continue to cause death and serious injury. HSE is working very hard to make it easier for people to understand what they need to do and to focus on the real priorities.

“Protecting people from death and serious injury at work should be at the heart of what we all do.”