When a prohibition notice was flagrantly breached
What happened?
A 78 year old farmer was driving his tractor as he fed cattle on his farm in South Wales. His grandson was with him in the cab, and this was spotted and filmed by a neighbour.
The law specifically prohibits any child under the age of 13 from driving or riding on or in any agricultural machine, including a tractor cab.
The farmer had already been issued with a prohibition notice by the HSE after admitting to inspectors he allowed his pre-teen grandchildren to ride in his tractor. But just two months later he was filmed by his neighbour flagrantly breaching the terms of that notice.
At the time of committing the offence, the farmer was also the subject of a suspended prison sentence for unrelated environmental offences, and he had already been fined £500 for breaching the terms of that sentence.
The HSE inspector said: ‘The fact this farmer chose to ignore a prohibition notice for putting his grandchildren at risk is all the more staggering.’
Legal Outcome
The farmer admitted breaching section 33(1)(g) Health and Safety at Work Act for contravening the prohibition notice. He was given a 12-month community order and ordered to pay £3,000 in costs.
What can we learn from what happened?
Agriculture is one of the most dangerous types of work in the UK, with the highest rate of fatalities and serious injuries in relation to number of workers or number of hours worked.
The risks are high enough without exposing children to the inherent dangers as well. Being killed by vehicles is the most significant cause of work related fatalities in agriculture over the last five years, and, unfortunately, children, often family members, are among those deaths.
It is a feature of farming that knowledge, skills and the benefit of experience are passed on through the generations. This is laudable, but not at the expense of a child’s safety or a child’s life.
Source of Information
IOSH Magazine