Nearly crushed to death

After a serious accident, Jack van Silfhout is calling on farmers to stop thinking they are indestructible and to take more care, especially with machinery. Photo / Andrew Warner

Jack van Silfhout thought he was "a goner" as he lay in a paddock, unable to move after being crushed by his tractor.

Mr van Silfhout's injuries included a crushed pelvis, broken nose, broken eye socket and crushed ribs.

The Welcome Bay farmer has spent the past five months recovering from his injuries and has called for farmers to stop thinking they are indestructible.

His comments come as figures showed more than 2000 farming-related injuries were reported in the Western Bay of Plenty from 2011 to 2013 - costing more than $1.5 million in compensation.

Mr van Silfhout, whose accident happened in April, was lucky the tractor had landed off him and he was not trapped. He managed to reach his cellphone and call his son. Mr van Silfhout has had more than 30 years experience working with large machinery and had celebrated his 71st birthday two days earlier. "Farmers need to be more conscious of the machinery they're using, because if you make a mistake, you're finished. I shouldn't have used the tractor I did because it didn't have a safety frame ..."

According to ACC, claim numbers in the Bay rose year-on-year to 378 new claims and 503 active claims in 2013. The figures included injuries to workers on sheep, beef, dairy cattle, poultry and other livestock farms, as well as those involved in fruit, vegetable, grain, plant and crop growing.

The total cost of active claims was also highest in 2013 at $553,000.

Federated Farmers Bay of Plenty president Rick Powdrell said the rising numbers were concerning, though he thought more people might be lodging claims where they would have previously shaken an injury off.

"There's a real concentration on safety now so people are really aware of the need to be safe and report incidents ..."

Nationally, the number of new ACC claims for farming injuries was highest in 2012 - up 2745 year-on-year to 20,565. In 2013, the number of new claims dropped slightly to 20,417.

Active claims followed a similar pattern, up by 2548 to 31,286 in 2013, and down slightly to 31,233 in 2014.