Farm injuries cost $3m a year in North

Northland farmer Merv Rusk, left, on his Marua dairy farm with worker Peter Lenssen, says not enough is being done to teach workers how to recognise the acts and conditions leading to injury or death. Photo / John Stone

More than 9000 farming injuries were reported in Northland from 2011 to 2013 - costing the national accident compensation scheme more than $9 million.

According to ACC, claim numbers rose year-on-year to 1274 new claims and 2026 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 highest in 2012 at $3,131,000.

Experts say farmers and farm workers needed to take responsibility for their own safety to bring the figures down.

Northland farmer Merv Rusk, who has previously campaigned for tractor and quad bike safety, said he did not think enough was being done to teach workers how to recognise the acts and conditions leading to injury or death.

"Accidents don't just happen," he said. "Injuries or worse occur because of a number of conditions.

"I'd like to see young people taught how to recognise those conditions and foresee accidents before they happen."

Farmers moving towards using safer side-by-side vehicles with frames rather than quad bikes was a step in the right direction, he said.

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.

The total costs of active claims were, however, highest last year at $52,513,000. In 2011, active claims totalled $51,015,000 and totalled $49,278,000 in 2012.

ACC spokeswoman Stephanie Melville said it wasn't surprising to have less claims but more costs.

"It seems reasonable to assume that the increased claim costs are a result of more serious accidents," she said.

"It's worth noting that one serious injury, such as spinal injury, can result in significant costs, including medical treatment and rehabilitation, housing and vehicle modifications, weekly compensation and so on."

ln an attempt to address the woeful statistics on workplace injuries, the Government introduced new regulatory agency WorkSafe New Zealand in December last year. The agency has been tasked with achieving a 25 per cent reduction in workplace deaths and serious harm by 2020.

WorkSafe national programmes support and design manager Francois Barton said the disproportionately high number of farming injuries and fatalities needed to be brought down.

"There were 51 fatalities reported to WorkSafe last year," he said. "Twenty of them were in agriculture - two were children - that says to me that not enough progress is being made."

It was ultimately up to farmers to improve the situation, he said.

"We do what we can to educate farmers and encourage safe practices but at the end of the day we're just a regulatory agency based in Wellington.

"We don't ride quad bikes, we don't use chemicals and we don't operate machinery. Farmers do those things so it's up to them to do them safely."