Federated Farmers has mounted a rear-guard action against calls for legislation to boost farm safety, particularly in the use of all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) or quad-bikes.
"I personally think there's been a welcome change in farm culture that on-farm safety is paramount," federation president Don Nicolson said today.
"While the farm toll's reduction is not as fast as we'd all like, we are seeing a positive downwards trend in recent years," he said, noting 13 people died in farm-related incidents in 2009, but 17 died in 2006.
Wellington coroner Ian Smith on Tuesday denounced Parliament for failing to bolster laws to make quad bikes safer - changes which might have saved the life of beekeeper Jody Santos, 21, who was sent out without adequate training on a quad-bike by his employer, Masterton-based honey company PA and SC Steens.
The Wellington man had not previously ridden an ATV before being sent out to hives on a farm on August 19, 2008. He died after overturning the machine on a road near the entrance to a farm driveway. He was not wearing a helmet and the unregistered, and unwarranted, bike was borrowed from a farmer.
More than 100 people had died in quad bike accidents in the past 10 years: "How many more deaths do we have to put up with?" Mr Smith said.
"I am at my wits' end. I don't get the hang of what Parliament is doing...the legislation we currently have to deal with quad bike safety is a mish-mash mess."
Mr Santos might have lived if laws had been tougher over safety, he said.
Coroners had repeatedly called for law changes to make roll bars and seatbelts mandatory, and for all riders to wear helmets, said Mr Smith: "Why can't we get these three lifesaving things on a quad bike?"
Mr Santos' family also demanded changes and backed the coroner's call for tougher laws.
But Mr Nicolson said that though "everyone in agriculture" shared the grief that the Santos family, the farm toll was relatively low compared with the 99 people who drowned in 2009 and the road toll of 393 deaths.
According to ACC figures, a farmer is killed every 28 days in farming accidents, while a farmer or an agricultural worker is injured every half an hour.
Last year there were 18,600 injuries on farms, mostly due to poor handling of animals, quad bikes and farm machinery.
Nearly 1700 farm workers injured by cattle last year cost nearly $6 million in ACC claims, and tractor, cattle and quad bike accidents cost $12.4m a year in ACC claims alone. Tractor accidents injured more than 300 people who were run over, rolled the tractors or were injured by a power take-off (PTO) shaft.
Otago University researchers have said that in any given year farm workers will lose control of quad bikes on approximately 12,645 occasions, resulting in about 1400 injuries -- not all of them reported.
NZPA