Issues addressed: Agriculture is recognised as a highly dangerous sector worldwide; hence, the use of evidence-based solutions to address injury-related incidents is critical to prevention. The main of this article was to determine the potential for prevention by use of existing controls based on deaths data from 2001-2016.
Methods: This study assesses data from the National Coroner's Information System for the period 2001-2016 in regard to unintentional farm injury deaths in Australia (n = 1271). The six leading causes of death (tractors, quads [ATVs], water/dams, farm utilities [pickups], motorcycles and horses: n = 644) are reviewed against existing evidence-based practice recommendations to ascertain the potential capacity to prevent and/or ameliorate the severity of the fatal incidents. Projections of economic costs associated with these incidents in the past five years (2012-2016) are outlined.
Results: Of the cases involving the six leading agents (n = 644), 36% (n = 235) have the potential to be prevented with the use of designated evidence-based controls. Meanwhile, the costs attributed to deaths involving the six leading agents in the 2012-2016 period, exceeded $313 million.
Conclusions: Farm injury incidents and their related economic costs can be reduced by enhanced adoption of the existing evidence-based controls.
So what: Farm safety efforts in Australia require reinvigoration and funding to focus on evidence-based controls supported by enforcement to attain maximum impact.
Keywords: agriculture; injury; rural and regional health; workplaces.
© 2018 Australian Health Promotion Association.