Fatal Incidents Involving Cattle And The Public

Agricultural accidents continue to be a hot topic for the HSE, and have been identified as a core focus in their Sector Work Plan for 2019 to 2020. The HSE's statistics for the last year shed some light on why they keep a close eye on the agricultural sector: despite employing 340,000 people, which is less than 1% of the population, the agricultural sector accounted for over 20% of worker fatalities in the last year in Great Britain.

In 2018 - 2019, there were 39 fatalities in agriculture. Perhaps unexpectedly, fatal accidents involving livestock are the second biggest killer on farms, with 9 deaths resulting in 2018 - 2019.

Over the last 3 years of records, all 19 deaths involving livestock were attributable to cattle. The question then is how can the agricultural sector best manage cattle to avoid these incidents arising, and what steps should farmers take if there is the prospect of an investigation from the HSE?

HSE Guidance

The key point to draw from the HSE guidance (Cattle and Public Access in England and Wales) is that there is no "gold standard" that a farm must reach in order to protect itself from the risk of incidents.

The law requires that a farm does what is reasonably practicable to protect persons from being exposed to risk due to interaction with their cattle. This assessment should properly be done on a herd by herd basis as one size does not fit all.

What is practicable will depend on size of farm, the size/type of herd, the layout of the land, and even the resources the farm has. Examples of general steps that can be taken to manage this risk properly include:

Where possible, keeping cattle in fields without public rights of way; Checking the safety of stiles, gates, fences etc.; Checking that paths and access routes are clearly marked; Considering signage at appropriate points if there is a bull or cows with calves; Checking the cattle and the surrounding fencing daily; Planning any cattle movements safely; Ensuring that cattle handling facilities are suitably robust, available and ready for use; Assessing temperament of any new animals to the farm; and Recording all of the above in a cattle diary in order to keep an eye on trends or behaviours. Public Rights of Way

A number of fatal cattle cases each year involve public rights of way through fields. The HSE guidance suggests that before putting cattle in a field where there is a right of way, the following points should be assessed:

The temperament of the cattle...