Farming
Machinery and vehicles
Often the most common underlying causes of accidents and fatalities on a farm are the easiest and cheapest to fix. This page aims to highlight the key factors to consider when ensuring the health and safety around vehicles and machinery.
The main areas for consideration are:
- purchasing
- using machines
- avoiding accidents
- dangerous parts
Purchasing
Legislation covering Health and Safety at Work requires that all equipment, machinery and vehicles must be safe to use without risks to health, and suitable for the task expected of them
It is a legal requirement that purchased machines are ‘CE’ marked, having been built by the manufacturer to minimum legal safety requirements.
A ‘certificate of conformity’ should accompany the machine, confirming the safety requirements to which the machine is built.
Operator instructions should be present, including a workshop manual and information on noise levels. Extra operator protection should be provided by the employer if noise levels exceed the legal requirements.
Further guidance is contained in the Health and Safety Executive booklets Buying New Machinery: A short guide to the law, and PUWER: How the regulations apply to agriculture and forestry.
Both publications will help you meet the legal requirements of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER).
Using machines
As an employer you must ensure that equipment is maintained in an efficient state, in good working order and properly repaired. All power-take-off guards, brakes, hydraulic hoses and other parts of machinery must be maintained to do their job at all times.
You should ensure regular maintenance checks are carried out in line with the manufacturer’s recommendations.
Useful checklists for tractors and trailed equipment have been produced by the British Agricultural and Garden Machinery Association (BAGMA). These can be downloaded from the BAGMA website.
If special training is required to use the machine safely, the supplier may provide this. Employers should then consider whether operators will need further formal training, for example for telescopic loaders, all-terrain vehicles and chainsaws.
Training is essential for all new users of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), and is available from training groups and colleges. Everyone driving an ATV should wear an approved safety helmet.
The HSE’s publication Fatal traction: Practical advice on avoiding agricultural transport accidents gives examples of typical accidents and highlights how the risks of such accidents can be reduced.
Further general advice is available in the Farmwise: Essential Guide to Health and Safety in Agriculture.
Avoiding Accidents
The Health and Safety Executive has published a number of booklets containing practical advice to highlight a number of specific health risks that can arsie from farm work:
- Tractor Action: a step-by-step guide to the safe use of tractors and tractor mounted machinery
- In the driving seat: Control back-pain risks from whole-body vibration
- Carriage of passengers on farm trailers
- Working near overhead power lines
- Health hazards from whole-body vibration caused by mobile agricultural machinery
Loose items, especially hammers and other tools, should NOT be carried inside the cab. In an overturn, they may cause extra injury.
To avoid a vehicle overturning, make sure tractors and equipment are properly maintained. Consider wide wheel settings for work on slopes.
It is a legal requirement to wear seatbelts where there is risk of an overturn. In the event that a vehicle overturns, stay in the cab. Do not try to jump clear.
There are also further safety leaflets available for a range of machines, including:
Dangerous parts
Power take-off shaft guards must be made to a recognised standard, being of the correct size and length both when closed and when extended.
Guards must be of a non-rotating type, with a restraining device, such as securing chains, properly in place and secured.
Guards should be cleaned and lubricated at regular intervals, ensuring that they are capable of providing proper protection
Machines which could present risks as a result of overload due to seizure or blockage should have a device fitted to prevent overload.
The power take-off should be supported when not connected. It should not be rested on the drawbar or suspended by the restraining device.
Adaptors should NOT be used to allow a 21-spline 1000 rpm shaft to drive a six-spline 540 rpm shaft.
See the HSE’s Power take-offs and power take-off drive shafts leaflet for further guidance.
Useful links
Health and Safety at Work legislation
Buying New Machinery: A short guide to the law
Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER)
Operator seat restraints for mobile work equipment in agriculture and forestry
Farmwise Essential Guide to Health and Safety in Agriculture
Practical advice on avoiding agricultural transport incidents
Carriage of passengers on farm trailers
Working near overhead power lines.
Health Hazards from Whole-Body Vibration Caused by Mobile Agricultural Machinery
Power take-offs and power take-off drive shafts
Page last modified: 1 July 2006
Page published: 1 July 2006