FARMERS are being warned to be more safety conscious at work as new figures showed five people died in the agricultural industry last year.
Alongside the National Farmers' Union Scotland's Farm Safety Week the Health and Safety Executive released data showing 30 agriculture workers died across the UK in the last 12 months.
The five deaths in Scotland last year was three deaths lower than the previous fatality average of eight from 2012 to 2016.
One farmer who had an accident at work, Matt Brown, told how he feared he would be paralysed after cracking his vertebrae in a fall from a roof at his South Lanarkshire dairy.
Mr Brown, of Whitecraigs, Glassford near Strathaven, fell 7ft onto concrete from a shed roof and was off work for six months.
He said: "I had shooting pain down my back and could move my left side, but could barely move my right arm.
"Not trying to get up or moving probably saved further damage.
“My son ran to get my wife to phone an ambulance.
"It wasn’t long before the police arrived followed by ambulance crews and the air ambulance with doctors from the Southern General in Glasgow. Because I was still conscious and could move, as far as they were concerned, they took me by ambulance to Hairmyres Hospital.
“A CT scan revealed that I’d fractured the C5 and C6 vertebrae. That’s when panic set in."
NFU Scotland President Andrew McCornick said: “It is human nature to think ‘it won't happen to me,’ but unfortunately it can, especially if we continue to take risks, whether major or minor."
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