Harvest advice to help ease farming’s poor safety record

Northern Powergrid will be at Sunday’s North Yorkshire County Show and next month’s Great Yorkshire Show and Driffield Show to urge farm workers to be extra vigilant around overhead power lines when using farm machinery.

There were seven deaths involving farm workers in 2013/14, according to the latest figures from the Health and Safety Executive.

And last year, Northern Powergrid said there were 18 incidents across the region involving tractors, trucks or other farm machinery striking cables or support poles on its 29,000km network of overhead power lines.

Geoff Earl, the firm’s director of safety, health and the environment, said: “We know this is the start of an incredibly busy and important period for the farming community and we want it to be a productive and safe time for farmers in our operating area.

“We’ll be spending the harvesting season working to increase awareness so farmers remember to plan ahead and ‘look up’ while working.”