As the main potato harvesting season gets underway, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is calling on farmers and contractors to take extra care.

The plea comes after a 34-year-old man was killed in Fife earlier this month while apparently working on a potato harvester that was powered up.

The HSE is also investigating an incident in which a Lincolnshire worker suffered severe cuts trying to clear a chopping mechanism and another where a Cambridgeshire farmer had his arm crushed when it was dragged into some cleaning rollers.

Tony Mitchell of the HSE’s agriculture and food sector said: "There have been three deaths involving potato harvesters in the past seven years and many more serious incidents besides.

“It is essential that proper systems are in place for cleaning machinery, fixing it or removing blockages. It must be switched off before any work is attempted on it.

"We understand that farmers are under immense time pressures, with the weather often another obstacle to contend with, but this should not mean they take short cuts with safety, risking a lifetime of disability or death. This not only impacts on them, but also their families and their livelihoods.

“In the past five years, 82 workers suffered fatal injuries between July and October, with deaths during these four harvest months accounting for almost half of all deaths in agriculture since 2004-05.”

Encouraging farmers to stop and think is a key message of HSE’s ‘Make the promise. Come home safe’ campaign. Some 15,000 farmers have already signed up to the campaign, which aims to help reduce death and injury in the sector by raising awareness of its risks.

A Safe Potato Handling DVD has been produced by the Potato Council with support from the HSE, the National Farmers' Union and Grimme UK.

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