Safety drive to cut deaths in farming

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE)'s regional director for Yorkshire, David Snowball, asked farmers to visit the HSE stand to learn more about how the high levels of farm fatalities can be cut down.

"We are especially concerned to see continuing high numbers of fatalities in agriculture.

"No industry can or should regard high levels of workplace death and injury as being 'part of the job'. Other sectors, such as construction, have shown they can improve."

The HSE is running the "Make the Promise" campaign to come home safe, attracting more than 2,000 signatures in Yorkshire alone.

In the 2009/10 period, official figures show a total of 38 people died while involved in farm work nationally. That is the average annual figure and was up sharply on the previous 12 months, which showed an unusual dip to 25 deaths.